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Summary [ History of Science ] Lecture Notes
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These are lecture notes of History of Science from the study Artificial Intelligence/Lifestyle Informatics at VU Amsterdam.
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HC1 – IntroductionWhy this course?
Out of comfort zone! Reflection on what we are, why we are (where we came from), where
are we heading (and do we want to take another turn)?
The most important reason [to examine and build ICT professionalism]
stems from the extent to which the increasing pervasiveness of ICT has
the potential to harm our economy and society. The extent to which ICT
is embedded in our lives is inevitably growing. If we fail to take steps to
mature the ICT profession, it is likely that the risks to society from ICT will
grow to unacceptable levels.
Examples:
1. Influence on our use of language or habits, use of metaphor
2. Augmented reality used for faking “news”, counting seconds in health care
3. Relationships (the movie Her)
Historical:
• Distance in time makes it easier to recognize several actors and interests
• Distance in time makes choices from the past more visible
• Historical failures won't help to prevent making new ones, but it does make hidden
assumptions more easily recognizable.
Sociological (for example humor):
• By describing the information sciences as a (sub)culture in its' own right
• With specific habits and “rituals”
• Emphasis on rise of a profession
History of Science
Prehistory
Roughly: Campbell-Kelly chapters 1-2. Ideals made machines into a
success!
Machines and Technology
We take it for granted, because machines and technology are self-evident
o The chess-playing turk, you can play against a puppet, mechanical thinking was
presented, but it was actually a dwarf in the machine
o Trust in technology is not self-evident
o Calculating devices
1
, Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
On the economy of machines and manufactures.
Frederik Taylor (1856-1915): shop management (1903), the principles of scientific
management (1911), Ford (1913). Afterwards, Henri Fayol (1841-1925), administration
industrielle et generale (1916).
Trust in numbers and efficiency
• US census (1890)
o Trust in Hollerith machines
• The value of statistics
o Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the east
o European continent was politically more “leftish” than US/UK
Three traditions
1. Administration
a. Punched card typing, calculators, typewriters
b. Sorting machines, counting machines, tabulating machines
c. 1923: efficiency movement
d. Not necessarily all very high tech, but following a business outline
2. Process control
a. Outlines of analogue to the process
b. Outline of process
3. Science and engineering
a. Computers (PEOPLE!) active in:
i. Weather (storm) predictions
ii. (Hydro)mechanical calculations
iii. Aeronautics
iv. Econometry (Jan Tinbergen)
v. Telephone cables
vi. Military applications (tables for aiming large guns; Manhattan project)
Administration: Automation. You can find working machines here.
Process control: working computers (analogue, reacting to processes).
Science: people build machines just because they could, to make things easier.
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