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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

216765

The minimal levels of abstraction in the history of modern computing

Federico GobboMarco Benini

pp. 327-343

Abstract

From the advent of general purpose, Turing-complete machines, the relation between operators, programmers and users with computers can be observed as interconnected informational organisms (inforgs), henceforth analysed with the method of levels of abstraction (LoAs), risen within the philosophy of information (PI). In this paper, the epistemological levellism proposed by L. Floridi in the PI to deal with LoAs will be formalised in constructive terms using category theory, so that information itself is treated as structure-preserving functions instead of Cartesian products. The milestones in the history of modern computing are then analysed through constructive levellism to show how the growth of system complexity lead to more and more information hiding.

Publication details

Published in:

De Mol Liesbeth, Primiero Giuseppe (2014) Trends in the history and philosophy of computing. Philosophy & Technology 27 (3).

Pages: 327-343

DOI: 10.1007/s13347-012-0097-0

Full citation:

Gobbo Federico, Benini Marco (2014) „The minimal levels of abstraction in the history of modern computing“. Philosophy & Technology 27 (3), 327–343.