ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Who Invented the Computer Revolution? Mapping Claims of Digital Shifts

• In Event: CTRL ALT SHIFT. Expériences, Knowledge, Activism, Methods - 4

English Abstract

In "Revolution in Science" (1985) Bernard Cohen asked whether historical actors involved in what many today see as revolutions in science actually thought about their work in such terms, or if the idea that science proceeds in radical shifts only emerged in recent times. Writing in 1985, Cohen gave the "computer revolution" as an example of a revolutionary shift which was also recognised as such, with his own bookshelf containing "almost a dozen books on computers that have ‘revolution’ in the title" (22), but he did not elaborate on this topic. I believe now the time is ripe to ask about and contextualize claims of computer revolutions, digital turns and so on.
However, I do not wish to ask, as often done, whether and how those claims corresponded or not to a reality: my question is rather when, where and how far the claims of various radical shifts emerged, in which communities and cultures they were situated, who expressed them and in which terms, e.g. "computational" vs. "digital," "information" and "simulation," and a present or future "revolution,"
"liberation," or "age." Last but not least: how far did such claims in turn play a role in later historical developments? I expect answers to these questions to reveal a diverse landscape, helping embed into cultural and socio-political history all aspects of the development of computing practices, and so contributing to better understanding today's uses of digital tools and rhetorics of digitality. In my talk I will sketch the motivations for this line of research, as well as some work in progress, with the aim of prompting further research.

Author

• Arianna Borrelli, RWTH Aachen, Germany