Abstract: The symbol is a crucial concept in the history of computer science and artificial intelligence, the very backbone of the digital revolution. Computer science itself was the empirical treatment of physical symbol systems, argued Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, and "symbolism" was tantamount to intelligent behavior as such. Strange then that the semiotic dimension of computing goes nearly uncommented across a wide range of contemporary critical approaches to digital technologies. This talk will argue for a digital semiotics on the basis of an exploration of an alternative genealogy of the symbol-concept in the early computing movement, with special attention to Alan Turing and Warren McCulloch. The mixed-mode AI that has recently become widespread in the form of "neural nets" is the legacy of this non-symbolist understanding of the role of symbols in computation.

Bio: Leif Weatherby is associate professor of German and founding director of the Digital Theory Lab at New York University. He writes about digital technologies, political economy, and German Romanticism and Idealism. His writing has appeared in Critical Inquiry, New German Critique, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others, and been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, of which he is currently a fellow.

Location:
Sussex Humanities Lab
School of Media, Arts, and Humanities
Silverstone Building (Second Floor)
Arts Road, Falmer
Brighton BN1 9RG

This will be a hybrid talk (on campus and online). To join on Zoom, please register with the event organiser, Beatrice Fazi (b.fazi@sussex.ac.uk)

Posted on behalf of: Sussex Humanities Lab
Last updated: Monday, 20 June 2022