November 2024 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

American codebreaker exhibit - but you can't see it
by Jonathan Coopersmith 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

https://dcist.com/story/23/09/22/arlington-foreign-service-institute-recogn… Actually, I suspect we could probably arrange a tour. Stay sane, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Emeritus Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) "Technological obsolescence, <https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence>" National Academy of Engineering *Perspectives* May 23, 2023 It's taking longer to vote - especially if you are Black or Hispanic <https://theconversation.com/its-taking-more-time-to-cast-a-ballot-in-us-ele…> , theconversation.com Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/ *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press)

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The impact of computer patents
by Brian Randell 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

Hi: I would be grateful for recommendations on books and papers containing thoughtful well-justified discussion of the likely or actual practical impact of the outcomes of the various attempts to patent the concept of a programmable computer (whether granted, refused or invalidated) on the early development of the computer industry, in the US and elsewhere. I have in mind the ENIAC and especially the Konrad Zuse patent cases, but am also interested in any others. (My searches for good references have been hampered by the proliferation of articles on software patenting - a topic which I am not trying to cover.) Cheers Brian Randell Sent from my iPhone

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cfa: The Global Cochlear Implant
by Mara Mills 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

The Global Cochlear Implant: Provincializing “Brain Implants” through Disability Technocultures Michele Friedner (University of Chicago) and Mara Mills (New York University) have received funding from the US-based National Endowment for the Humanities <https://www.neh.gov/program/dangers-and-opportunities-technology-perspectiv…>for a conference, working group, and book project on “The Global Cochlear Implant” for the period Fall 2023-Fall 2025. We are seeking chapter contributors for our interdisciplinary edited volume that will focus on: -Historical and contemporary accounts of cochlear implant development and utilization in specific geographic contexts, including developing contexts -Pre-histories of cochlear implant development and use (especially in Russia, France, Austria) -Analysis of the ways that cochlear implantation is changing (or not) deaf and disability identities, socialities, solidarities, and life trajectories in specific geographic contexts - Ethics of cochlear implantation development, dissemination, and use in diverse contexts; an exploration of ethics can also include discussions of brain implants and biotechnology more broadly - Humanistic and aesthetic accounts and representations of cochlear implantation - Histories connecting cochlear implants to the broader category of brain implants Doctoral students are welcome and encouraged to apply. Contributors can be at any academic or non-academic rank and will be offered a stipend for their chapters as well as travel and lodging funds to attend the October 2024 conference in Chicago. Participants will also be invited to attend monthly zoom group meetings where they will receive support for writing their chapters. The deadlines are as follows: 1. Submit abstract and cv to michelefriedner(a)uchicago.edu and mmills(a)nyu.edu <mamills(a)nyu.edu> by December 1 2023; please email both with questions and/or concerns. 2. Decisions will be made by Jan 1, 2024. 3. Working group meetings in support of research and writing of papers will commence first week of February. 4. Conference will be held in October 2024 at the University of Chicago; Participants will present talks based on their chapters. 5. Versions of chapters will be sent to the selected press in April 2025. Project Abstract: Perhaps no medical device has sparked more popular discussion of the “dangers and opportunities of technology” than the cochlear implant (CI). The first true bionic device, CIs (re)produce an absent ‘normal’ human function (Blume 2009). Despite ongoing polarizing debates about the ramifications of CI technology, only a few book-length studies of the technology exist, and these have overwhelmingly emphasized U.S. and European perspectives. This collaborative humanities project will document the impacts of the technology itself (e.g. algorithmic bias), the influence of the global corporations that market it, and the range of ways implants have been domesticated, maintained, and re-interpreted. At this pivotal moment for the development and global dissemination of neuroprosthetics, with brain implants widely featured in the popular press, this multi-disciplinary, international project will serve both a documentary and a comparative function, as well as provide a platform, through our conference and published work, for alternative narratives of CI use. Mara Mills <http://maramills.org/> | Associate Professor | Media, Culture, and Communication | New York University Co-Director, NYU Center for Disability Studies <https://disabilitystudies.nyu.edu/> Crip Authorship: Disability as Method <https://nyupress.org/9781479819355/crip-authorship/>, eds. Mills and Sanchez (NYU 2023) Testing Hearing: The Making of Modern Aurality <https://academic.oup.com/book/36957>, eds. Tkaczyk, Mills, and Hui (Oxford 2020)

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[So-Hist-Info] Socio-History of Informatics Seminar 24/12/16 - A transnational history of the introduction of computers in education
by FICHEN Mathilde 25 Nov '24

25 Nov '24

Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the second session of our Socio-History of Informatics Seminar, which will take place at the Cnam in Paris and online on Monday, December 16, 2024, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, featuring Barbara Hof (University of Lausanne). The present is boring, but the future is bright?! A transnational history of the introduction of computers in education since the 1960s Ronan Le Roux (University of Paris-Est Créteil, INSPE) will lead the discussion. The presentation will be in English. Location: Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, 2 rue Conté, 75003 Paris, Room 30-1-18 (Building 30, 1st basement level, Room 18). To facilitate organization, please register using this form: https://framaforms.org/inscription-seminaire-de-socio-histoire-de-linformat… A connection link (BigBlueButton) will be sent the day before the event for remote participants. Summary of the talk: The arrival of new technologies in education has always been shaped by contradictory visions. On the one hand, technologies stoked fears of a loss of competence and the restriction of learners through behaviorist teaching systems; on the other hand, technologies were praised as a means of acquiring skills more quickly through greater individuality. The turbulent history of the slow introduction of computers in schools since the 1960s clearly demonstrates this. As a contribution to the research seminar, this talk will address how the use of computers in education has been repeatedly touted as a breakthrough and reformer of education systems in many countries, while there has always been a mismatch between imaginaries and reality. Of particular interest are the economic and political conditions surrounding this development, as well as some of the key transnational and local actors, and the intermediaries connecting them. Examining expectations of educational technologies helps to uncover some of the underlying assumptions that drive innovation. The talk is based on the author’s contribution to a forthcoming book chapter that will add a historical perspective to the growing critical literature questioning the futurism inherent in digital educational media. Upcoming sessions: * February 10, 2025 - Cédric Neumann - CNAM, HT2S * April 1, 2025 - Marie-José Durand-Richard - CNRS-Paris 7, SPHERE * April 14, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM - Jaroslav Švelch - Charles University (Czech Republic) * June 16, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM - Michael Homberg - Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF) Potsdam (Germany) * Date TBD - Théo Lepage-Richer - University of Toronto (Canada) Summaries for each presentation will be shared later. The Socio-History of Computing Seminar is a research seminar organized by the HT2S laboratory research center at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. This seminar aims to explore new narratives of the long-term history of computing, focusing on how computing intertwines with social, economic, political, and cultural issues. Every two months, we invite a researcher in history and/or anthropology and sociology (with a historical or diachronic perspective) of computing to present their work. Seminar website: https://sohistinfo.github.io/ Looking forward to seeing you there, Kind regards, Mathilde Fichen (PhD candidate, HT2S), Adrien Tournier (PhD candidate, HT2S), and Camille Paloque-Bergès (Researcher, HT2S) for the seminar organization team. Mathilde Fichen Ph.D Candidate CNAM - HT2S<https://technique-societe.cnam.fr/histoire-des-technosciences-en-societe-ht…> Personal page: mathfichen.github.io<https://mathfichen.github.io/>

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Call for papers: Internet Histories Early Career Researcher Award 2026
by Asger Harlung 22 Nov '24

22 Nov '24

Call for papers: Internet Histories Early Career Researcher Award 2026 Deadline 1st October 2025 All submitted and accepted articles will be considered for inclusion in a special issue “Internet Histories Early Career Researchers” Do you study the past? Perhaps you even do historical research and know the difference between the Internet and the Web, and even how to historically and technically explain them? Chances are this Call for Articles may be of interest to you... Read more about previous awards at https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rint20/collections/best-paper-prize-ea… Please see the full call for papers here: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/early-career-researcher-a… Kind regards of behalf of The Editors of Internet Histories Asger Harlung, Editorial Assistant, Internet Histories

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Luddism
by Dag Spicer 21 Nov '24

21 Nov '24

Re: Earlier discussion of Luddism. Today’s JSTOR newsletter has the following: <https://daily.jstor.org/luddites-on-trial/?utm_term=Luddites%20on%20Trial&u…> [luddites_on_trial_1050x700.jpg] Luddites on Trial - JSTOR Daily<https://daily.jstor.org/luddites-on-trial/?utm_term=Luddites%20on%20Trial&u…> daily.jstor.org<https://daily.jstor.org/luddites-on-trial/?utm_term=Luddites%20on%20Trial&u…> Luddism "ended on the scaffold.” — E. P. Thompson. Dag ----- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing ACM History Committee 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View CA 94043 “History is a vast early warning system.” — Norman Cousins, American journalist (1915-1990).

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In memory of Thomas Kurtz
by Annette Vee 21 Nov '24

21 Nov '24

Hello, SIGCIS, Folks here likely saw this, but I didn't see it come through (apologies if I missed it). Thomas Kurtz, who developed BASIC and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) with John Kemeny, passed away last week, at 96. NY Times obit <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/technology/thomas-kurtz-dead.html>: “At Dartmouth, long before the days of laptops and smartphones, he worked to give more students access to computers. That work helped propel generations into a new world.” Dartmouth obit <https://faculty.dartmouth.edu/artsandsciences/news/2024/11/remembering-comp…>: "Dartmouth had the largest open-stack library in the world at that time in a college of this type, and the concept of open-stack computing, that was my idea," Kurtz said. "Thatʼs one of the few ideas I had that Kemeny didnʼt have." [he was modest, and deeply admired Kemeny!] Computer History Museum obit <https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-memoriam-thomas-e-kurtz-1928-2024/>: "DTSS was the earliest successful, large-scale timesharing system, a remarkable achievement. [...] DTSS was unveiled on May 1, 1964, along with BASIC. By that fall, hundreds of students were exploring BASIC on the 20 terminals around campus." People on HackerNews <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42141761> are paying their respects by mentioning the influence of BASIC on their lives and careers. I interviewed him in 2017. He was so generous, and as brilliant as you'd expect. He wrote me a memo on "Grammatical Simplifications in BASIC." He loved memos--was an academic mathematician at heart, even at 89! I wrote about the interview here: https://annettevee.substack.com/p/thomas-kurtz-basic-and-computing and also in 2023, in a critical code studies article, "BASIC FTBALL and Computer Programming for All <https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/17/2/000696/000696.html>” Other great work on BASIC that many here already know: The Birth of BASIC documentary <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYPNjSoDrqw>: from the 50th anniversary of BASIC, in 2014. Rankin, J. (2018) A People's History of Computing in the United States. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Montfort, N. et al. (2014) 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1));: GOTO 10, Cambridge: MIT Press. Annette Annette Vee Associate Professor of English University of Pittsburgh

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Martin Davis correspondence
by David Nofre 21 Nov '24

21 Nov '24

Dear SIGCIS members, I'm interested in the correspondence between the late Martin Davis and Edward F. Moore in the 1950s. I have read about the last year's auction of Davis's personal files. Does anybody know if they are available for research? Best, David -- https://www.davidnofre.com/ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3580-7264

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Internet Histories, Volume 8, Issue 4, December 2024 is now available online
by Asger Harlung 21 Nov '24

21 Nov '24

To whom it may concern, The Editorial Staff of Internet Histories is pleased to announce that; Internet Histories, Volume 8, Issue 4, December 2024 is now available online. This is the third Early Career Researcher Award special issue. The full issue may be accessed at this URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/8/4 It contains the following articles: Editorial: The third internet histories Early Career Researcher Award Niels Brügger, Anat Ben-David, Ian Milligan & Valérie Schafer Articles: “The flames are 50/50 right now”: content moderation practices at the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States (1982–1990) Kat Brewster Fixing the earth: whole-systems thinking in Silicon Valley’s environmental ideology | Open Access Rianne Riemens Methodological and epistemological challenges in meme research and meme studies | Open Access Idil Galip Book Reviews: The Digital Revolution: A Short History of an Ideology By Gabriele Balbi, Oxford University Press, 2024, 176 pp., ISBN 9780198875970 Tyler West The Digital Departed: How We Face Death, Commemorate Life, and Chase Virtual Immortality By Timothy Recuber, NYU Press, 2023, 288 pp., ISBN: 9781479814947 Nilou Davoudi WhatsApp: From a one-to-one Messaging App to a Global Communication Platform By Amelia Johns, Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, and Emma Baulch. 2024. Polity Press, 220pp. ISBN 9781509550524 Ben T. Pettis ----------- Kind regards on behalf of the editors, Asger Harlung Editorial Assistant, Internet Histories

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Fwd: Discover Interplay: A Book about Games, Experiments, and Intelligences
by William Morgan 19 Nov '24

19 Nov '24

Dear Colleagues, I am happy to announce the publication of the new book *Interplay <https://www.interplay.games/> *about five experiments in game design. The book, which features contributions from academics, designers, technologists, and scientists, investigates how game worlds can foster cross-intelligence communication without commensuration and in the process develops a theory of the game engine as a technology of worlding. Video trailer for the book here <https://caldo-worldwide.com/>! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: caldo worldwide <store+30005788(a)g.shopifyemail.com> Date: Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 5:08 PM Subject: Discover Interplay: A Book about Games, Experiments, and Intelligences To: <williammorgan1015(a)gmail.com> Official launch of the book Interplay by Will Freudenheim & William Morgan ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ [image: caldo worldwide] <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AAAdu…> <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AAB%2…> Interplay by Will Freudenheim and William Morgan **Welcome to the World of **Interplay**!* ***We are thrilled to share our latest publication with you. *Interplay* takes you on a journey to explore new worlds and different forms of intelligence, made accessible through play. The idea for this book came up with the artist, game designer, and researcher Will Freudenheim's exhibition *Schema *(December 2023 - May 2024) at Caldo Worldwide. The idea developed into a collaborative work with the philosopher of technology, William Morgan, and with Will Freudenheim complementing the publication with other self-developed games and sharing their insightful knowledge and ideas alongside co-authors Flora Weil, Wendi Yan, Doug Stark, and Sylvan Rackham. The book examines five groundbreaking experiments in the field of game design, created through interdisciplinary collaboration among game designers, artists, scientists, philosophers, and sociologists named *Biotopy, Interplay, Schema, Nephila, and Vivarium**. *The games serve as tools to establish and engage in playful interactions and collaborations between human and non-human intelligence. ---> Stay tuned for updates and grab your copy soon.* <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AAD6S…> <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AABxQ…> <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AACOo…> <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AADqI…> [image: INTERPLAY by Will Freudenheim and William Morgan] <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AAAdM…> Interplay by Will Freudenheim and William Morgan €30.00 To ongoing debates about emerging technologies, namely artificial intelligence and biotechnology, this book contributes the novel hypothesis that interaction sites between human and non-human intelligences, be they human, collective, biotic, synthetic or environmental, are already proliferating according to developments in game design. In short, new genera and species of interactions and of intelligences are already present in playful experiments. This book tracks the evolution of five such intelligence experiments, not unlike a set of petridishes with variant initial conditions. In doing so, what the book offers is not a unified theory of ‘play in the age of AI’, but rather a multifaceted account of how intelligences form and emerge through and across playful interaction surfaces, spaces and dynamics. Authors: ---> Will Freudenheim (NYC, USA) ---> William Morgan (Berkeley, USA) Co-Authors: ---> Doug Stark (Arlington, USA), ---> Sylvan Rackam (London, UK) ---> Flora Weil (Paris, France) ---> Wendi Yan (Los Angeles, USA) *Interplay:* Will Freudenheim, William Morgan, 2024 Book, Softcover 156 pages, 17 x 24 cm Printed in Germany Published by Caldo Worldwide Designed by Christina Mayer ISBN: 9783948288051 Shipping Worldwide * Get a copy <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AABdG…> Illustration: Will Freudenheim Photos: Daniel Mayer For appointments or any questions, please email alenamayer(a)caldo-worldwide.com. Caldo Worldwide Dachauer Str. 110c 80636 Munich Germany [image: instagram] <https://caldo-worldwide.com/_t/c/A1020005-1808301606AEC68F-DDB1668A?l=AAAQf…> Unsubscribe <https://caldo-worldwide.com/account/unsubscribe?token=NolwFbUQVPV_UeEBql5yK…> © 2023 caldo worldwide

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