Philosophy and Computing: an Introduction / Luciano Floridi
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Philosophy and Computing “Philosophy and Computing is a stimulating and ambitious book that seeks to help lay a foundation for the new and vitally important field of Philosophy of Information. The author undertakes the challenging task of explaining central aspect of information techology – like datebase, hypertext and network – in ways that reveal important, and sometimes surprising, philosophical implications. Thought-provoking comments abound on a variety of philosophical topics, including logic, reasoning, meaning, belief, knowledge, intelligence, society, ontology, aesthetics and time – to name only a few examples. This is a worthy addition to the brand new and rapidly developing field of Philosophy of Information, a field that will revolutionise philosophy in the Information Age.” Terrell Ward Bynum, Director, Research Center on Computing and Society, Southern Connecticut State University “Floridi’s helpful, informative and often fascinating book is a welcome arrival. Floridi writes calmly and with good sense on topics that others have hyped mercilessly.” B. Jack Copeland, The Turing Project, University of Canterbury “In his seminal book, Luciano Floridi provides a rich combination of technical information and philosophical insights necessary for the emerging field of philosophy and computing.” James Moor, Dartmouth College “Luciano Floridi’s book discusses the most important and the latest branches of research in information technology. He approaches the subject from a novel philosophical viewpoint, while demonstrating a strong command of the relevant technicalities of the subject.” Hava T. Siegelman, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology Luciano Floridi is research fellow at Wolfson College and lecturer in philosophy at Jesus College, Oxford University. He is the author of Scepticism and the Foundation of Epistemology and the consultant editor for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy on CD-ROM. Philosophy and Computing An introduction Luciano Floridi London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 1999 Luciano Floridi All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Floridi, Luciano, 1964– Philosophy and computing: an introduction / Luciano Floridi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Computer science – Philosophy. I. Title. QA76.167.F56 1999 004´.01 – dc21 98–47915 CIP ISBN 0-415-18024-4 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-18025-2 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-01531-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17469-0 (Glassbook Format) . νπο δ αµϕιπολοι ρωοντο ανακτι χρνσειαι ζωησι νεηνισιν ειοικνιαι. τηζ εν µεν νοοζ εστι µετα ϕρεσιν, εν δε και ανδη και σθενοζ, αθανατων δε θεων απο εργα ισασιν αι µεν νπαιθα ανακτοζ εποιπνυον. Iliad xviii, 417–421 . Handmaids ran to attend their master [Hephaestus], all cast in gold but a match for living, breathing girls. Intelligence fills their hearts, voice and strength their frames, from the deathless gods they’ve learned their works of hand. They rushed to support their lord . The Iliad, tr. by R. Fagles, p. 481 Contents Preface ix 1 Divide et computa: philosophy and the digital environment 1 The digital revolution 1 The four areas of the digital revolution 4 From the analogue to the digital: the new physics of knowledge 9 The digitisation of the infosphere: three steps 14 The relations between philosophy and computing 15 2 The digital workshop 20 From the laboratory to the house 20 What is a computer? 21 Programming languages and software 47 Types of commercial computers 50 The personal computer 51 3 A revolution called Internet 56 The Internet as a basic technological change 56 What is the Internet? 61 What can the Internet be used for? 67 The future of the human encyclopaedia in the third age of IT: Frankenstein or Pygmalion? 79 4 The digital domain: infosphere, databases and hypertexts 88 The Paradox of the growth of knowledge: from the chicken and the egg to the needle in a haystack 88 viii Philosophy and Computing “Everything must be transformed into an Encyclopaedia” (Novalis) 97 What is a database system? 99 Types of database systems 102 Data, information and knowledge: an erotetic approach 106 The hyperbolic space of the infosphere and the fifth element 108 The aesthetic and the ontological interpretation of databases 110 Ideometry 111 The commodification of information and the growth of the infosphere 113 Rich and poor in the information economy 114 ICT practical problems and computer ethics 116 Textual analysis: a constructionist approach 116 Hypertext as information retrieval system 117 Conclusion: a Renaissance mind? 130 5 Artificial intelligence: a light approach 132 GOFAI 132 Turing’s Test 134 Four limits of Turing’s Test 136 The application-areas of AI 142 The conditions of possibility of AI and the paradox of GOFAI 146 From GOFAI to LAI 148 The Cartesian nature of LAI 150 Deep Blue: a Cartesian computer 151 The success of LAI 154 The limits of LAI 215 Conclusion 218 Notes 224 Bibliography 227 Index 238 Preface A philosophy textbook is always a risky project. We expect the author to introduce all the basic elements in the field clearly and succinctly, while providing an interesting perspective from which to interpret them fruitfully. This doubles the chances of getting things wrong and generates a paradoxical tension between originality and lack of novelty. In an attempt to get round the latter problem, I have written this introduction to information and communication technology (ICT) with two kinds of philosophy students in mind: those who need to acquire some ICT literacy in order to use computers efficiently, and those who may be interested in acquiring the background knowledge indispensable for developing a critical understanding of our digital age and hence beginning to work on that would-be branch of philosophy I define the “philosophy of information”, which I hope may one day become part of our Philosophia Prima. To members of the former group I wish to say that a lot of the basic material provided in the following chapters can also be found scattered elsewhere. It would require some effort to select, collect and order it appropriately and clearly from many different sources that philosophers are unlikely to consult, but I freely acknowledge that I have often simply tried to explain or rephrase more clearly, and with an eye to its philosophical relevance, what is really standard knowledge in computer science, information theory and ICT. (For more technical introductions to computer science see Brookshear 1997, a very valuable and clear overview; Cohen 1997, Dewdney 1989 and 1996; and Tunnicliffe 1991; on information theory see Shannon and Weaver 1975; Shannon 1993 and the more philosophical Devlin 1991; two good textbooks are Reza 1994 and Van der Lubbe 1997; on the philosophy of technology see Mitcham 1994). I must warn members of the latter group of students that whatever originality there may be in the text, in terms of interpretation, arguments or analyses, it may well be controversial. I aimed to provide an unbiased introduction to ICT from a philosophical perspective, but the closer the topic came to the conceptual debate, the more I found myself failing in that aim. It is easier to be intellectually neutral when talking about different types of data storage than when dealing with the concept of text or the possibility of artificial intelligence. By the time the reader has reached Chapter 5, I can only hope that my “logocentric” or x Philosophy and Computing “neo-Cartesian” views (both labels with negative connotations for many philosophers who write about the topics covered by this book) will be sufficiently clear to allow an open discussion of their value. It is up to the reader to judge whether I have been able to keep a reasonable balance. Let me now briefly introduce the contents of the book. In Chapter 1, I outline the nature of the digital revolution, sketching the profound transformations that it has brought about in four areas: computation, automatic control, modelling and information management. In the second part of the chapter, I consider the impact that the digital revolution has had on the world of organised information, which I more broadly call the infosphere. I discuss how ICT has provided a new physics of knowledge and describe the three stages in which the infosphere has been digitised. In the last part of the chapter, I focus on the relations between philosophy and the digital, thus introducing the following chapter. In Chapter 2, I explain what a computer is, first by analysing the conceptual steps that led to the construction of the first machines, then by concentrating on the nature of a Universal Turing machine and its Boolean logic. In the second half of the chapter, I move on to the description first of a Von Neumann machine and then of a commercial PC. In Chapter 3, I introduce the Internet as a basic technological innovation. I first summarise its history and explain in more detail what the Internet is and what it can be used for. I then devote some space to the analysis of electronic mail, interpreted as a new form of communication, which I call the silent dialogue. In the second half of the chapter, I explain the nature of the World Wide Web and then go on to analyse the new kinds of problems that the growth of a network of information and communication has given rise to in the field of organised knowledge.