Critical Programming: Toward a Philosophy of Computing
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University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2015 Critical Programming: Toward a Philosophy of Computing John Bork University of Central Florida Part of the Philosophy Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Bork, John, "Critical Programming: Toward a Philosophy of Computing" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 1356. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/1356 CRITICAL PROGRAMMING TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF COMPUTING by JOHN ROBERT BORK B.A University of Houston, 1993 B.S. Bowling Green State University, 1999 M.I.T. Bowling Green State University, 2005 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Texts and Technology in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2015 Major Professor: Bruce Janz © 2015 John Robert Bork version 20151108 ii ABSTRACT Beliefs about the relationship between human beings and computing machines and their destinies have alternated from heroic counterparts to conspirators of automated genocide, from apocalyptic extinction events to evolutionary cyborg convergences. Many fear that people are losing key intellectual and social abilities as tasks are offloaded to the 'everyware' of the built environment, which is developing a mind of its own. If digital technologies have contributed to forming a dumbest generation and ushering in a robotic moment, we all have a stake in addressing this collective intelligence problem. While digital humanities continue to flourish and introduce new uses for computer technologies, the basic modes of philosophical inquiry remain in the grip of print media, and default philosophies of computing prevail, or experimental ones propagate false hopes. I cast this as-is situation as the post-postmodern network dividual cyborg, recognizing that the rational enlightenment of modernism and regressive subjectivity of postmodernism now operate in an empire of extended mind cybernetics combined with techno- capitalist networks forming societies of control. Recent critical theorists identify a justificatory scheme foregrounding participation in projects, valorizing social network linkages over heroic individualism, and commending flexibility and adaptability through life long learning over stable career paths. It seems to reify one possible, contingent configuration of global capitalism as if it was the reflection of a deterministic evolution of commingled technogenesis and synaptogenesis. To counter this trend I offer a theoretical framework to focus on the phenomenology of software and code, joining social critiques with textuality and media studies, the former proposing that theory be done iii through practice, and the latter seeking to understand their schematism of perceptibility by taking into account engineering techniques like time axis manipulation. The social construction of technology makes additional theoretical contributions dispelling closed world, deterministic historical narratives and requiring voices be given to the engineers and technologists that best know their subject area. This theoretical slate has been recently deployed to produce rich histories of computing, networking, and software, inform the nascent disciplines of software studies and code studies, as well as guide ethnographers of software development communities. I call my syncretism of these approaches the procedural rhetoric of diachrony in synchrony, recognizing that multiple explanatory layers operating in their individual temporal and physical orders of magnitude simultaneously undergird post-postmodern network phenomena. Its touchstone is that the human-machine situation is best contemplated by doing, which as a methodology for digital humanities research I call critical programming. Philosophers of computing explore working code places by designing, coding, and executing complex software projects as an integral part of their intellectual activity, reflecting on how developing theoretical understanding necessitates iterative development of code as it does other texts, and how resolving coding dilemmas may clarify or modify provisional theories as our minds struggle to intuit the alien temporalities of machine processes. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................viii LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1 From Automated Genocide to the Dumbest Generation.............................................................1 A Collective Intelligence Problem..............................................................................................7 Societies of Control................................................................................................................9 The Quintessential Postmodern Object................................................................................11 Foss Hopes............................................................................................................................13 Default Philosophies of Computing.....................................................................................16 Digital Humanities Solutions....................................................................................................19 Not to Use Old Tools for New Problems..............................................................................19 Scholarship Requires a Cybersage.......................................................................................21 Digital Humanities Projects..................................................................................................24 Critical Programming Studies..............................................................................................26 CHAPTER 2: POST-POSTMODERN NETWORK DIVIDUAL CYBORG...............................31 Post-Postmodern Subjectivity...................................................................................................34 Modernism and Postmodernism...........................................................................................35 Regressive Subjectivity........................................................................................................41 Inventing the Posthuman in Heidegger's America...............................................................58 Network Dividual Cyborg.........................................................................................................63 v Closed World Cybernetics....................................................................................................65 Cyborg Embodiment............................................................................................................77 Techno-capitalist Networks..................................................................................................90 Dividual Cyborg.................................................................................................................103 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY..............................120 Theoretical Framework...........................................................................................................122 Critical Theory....................................................................................................................124 Textuality Studies...............................................................................................................134 Media Studies.....................................................................................................................146 Social Construction of Technology....................................................................................157 Histories of Computing, Software and Networking...........................................................167 Psycho-Social Studies of Computer Programmers.............................................................185 Philosophers of Computing Technologies..........................................................................201 Software Studies.................................................................................................................229 Code Studies.......................................................................................................................264 Procedural Rhetorics of Diachrony in Synchrony..............................................................296 Methodology...........................................................................................................................320 Philosophical Programmers................................................................................................321 Working Code Places..........................................................................................................324 Programming Philosophers................................................................................................340