When logic meets engineering: introduction to logical issues in the history and philosophy of computer science

Introduction to a Journal Special issue on Logical Issues in the History and Philosophy of Computer Scienc

When logic meets engineering: introduction to logical issues in the history and philosophy of computer science

Introduction to a Journal Special issue on Logical Issues in the History and Philosophy of Computer Scienc

The Paradox of Source Code Secrecy

In Lear v. Adkins, the Supreme Court precipitously wrote, federal law requires that all ideas in general circulation be dedicated to the common good unless they are protected by a valid patent. Today, it is clear that trade secrecy\u27s dominance over source code has been a significant cause for concern in cases involving the public interest. To protect civil rights in the age of automated decision making, I argue, we must limit opportunities for seclusion in areas of intellectual property, criminal justice, and governance more generally. The solution, therefore, does not require a complete overhaul of the existing system, but rather a more nuanced, granular approach that seeks to balance the interest of disclosure and public access with the substantial values of protection, privacy, and property

Multidisciplinary aspects of cyber warfare

Sajber ratovanje je ratovanje u sajber prostoru, zasnovano na primeni informacionokomunikacionih tehnologija. Ono predstavlja specifičan oblik međunarodnih sukoba, koji se od tradicionalnih formi ratovanja razlikuje po sredstvima, metodama i učesnicima. Sajber ratovanje se primenjuje nezavisno od perioda rata i mira. Po tehnikama, metodi i procesu napada, ono se tehnološki značajno ne razlikuje od kriminalnih, špijunskih ili terorističkih aktivnosti. Potencijal ovog, tehnološki zasnovanog oblika sukoba, raste sa zastupljenošću i uticajem informacionih tehnologija na nacionalnom i globalnom nivou. Međunarodna praksa sukoba u sajber prostoru je stvarna i dinamična. Države izdvajaju rastuća budžetska sredstva za vođenje sukoba u sajber prostoru, razvijaju kapacitete i organizacione strukture za preduzimanje operacija u sajber prostoru i usvajaju doktrine i strategije njihove primene i razvoja. Pojedine države su proglasile sajber prostor petim područjem izvođenja vojnih dejstava, ravnopravan sa kopnom, morem, vazduhom i svemirom. Međutim, međunarodna zajednica ima prirodnu potrebu da međunarodnopravno reguliše sve sukobe, uključujući i sajber ratovanje. Prirodan put da se to učini je primenom postojećeg prava oružanih sukoba i analogije sa odgovarajućim situacijama oružanih sukoba u fizičkom prostoru. Uprkos kratkom periodu razvoja doktrina, metoda i sredstava za vođenje operacija u sajber prostoru, savremena naučna i stručna literatura je bogata radovima koji se bave mogućim načinima primene pomenute analogije u svrhu regulisanja sajber ratovanja. Posebno mesto u toj literaturi ima primena prava na osnovu efekata sajber napada. Taj pristup je prihvatila većina međunarodnih pravnih stručnjaka, uključujući i autore Talinskog priručnika za sajber ratovanje. Uprkos ovakvom teorijskom pristupu, situacije i posledice izvođenja sajber napada na međunarodnom nivou ostaju nerešene i neregulisane u praktičnom pogledu. U praksi države izvode operacije u sajber prostoru, koristeći okolnost da je napade teško otkriti dok se ne manifestuju njihove očigledne posledice; da je najčešće nemoguće izvršiti identifikaciju i atribuciju napadača, odnosno praktično utvrditi odgovornost neke države za preduzeti napad i njegove posledice u skladu sa pravilima, normama i principima Međunarodnog prava oružanih sukoba.Cyber warfare is warfare in cyberspace, based on application of information communication technologies. It represents a specific form of international conflict, differing from the traditional warfare forms in means, methods and participants. Cyber warfare is applied independently from war and peace periods. It is not significantly technologically different in its techniques, methods and attack processes from criminal, espionage or terrorist activities. The potential of this, technologically based conflict form, grows with prevalence and influence of information technologies at the national and global level. International practice of cyber space conflict is real and dynamic. States allocate growing budget funds for conducting cyberspace conflict, they develop capacities and organizational structures for operations in cyberspace and adopt doctrines and strategies for their application and development. Some states declared cyberspace the fifth domain of military activities, equal with land, sea, air, and space. However, international community has got a natural tendency to regulate all conflicts, including cyber warfare. The natural way to do this is through application of the existing law of armed conflict and analogy with appropriate armed conflict situations in physical space. Despite brief period for development of doctrines, methods and means for cyberspace operations, modern scientific and professional literature is rich in papers dealing with possible ways of application of the said analogy for the purpose of regulation of cyber warfare. Special place in this literature belongs to application of law based on cyber attack effects. This approach was accepted by most international legal experts, including authors of Tallinn Manual for cyber warfare. Despite such a theoretical approach, situations and consequences of conducting cyber attacks at international level remain unresolved and unregulated in practice. States execute operations in cyberspace, using the circumstance that attacks are difficult to discover until their obvious consequences are manifested; that most often it is impossible to perform identification and attribution of attackers, i.e. to practically determine responsibility of a state for an attack and its consequences in accordance with the rules, norms and principles of International law of armed conflict

On Making in the Digital Humanities

On Making in the Digital Humanities fills a gap in our understanding of digital humanities projects and craft by exploring the processes of making as much as the products that arise from it. The volume draws focus to the interwoven layers of human and technological textures that constitute digital humanities scholarship. To do this, it assembles a group of well-known, experienced and emerging scholars in the digital humanities to reflect on various forms of making (we privilege here the creative and applied side of the digital humanities). The volume honours the work of John Bradley, as it is totemic of a practice of making that is deeply informed by critical perspectives. A special chapter also honours the profound contributions that this volume’s co-editor, Stéfan Sinclair, made to the creative, applied and intellectual praxis of making and the digital humanities. Stéfan Sinclair passed away on 6 August 2020. The chapters gathered here are individually important, but together provide a very human view on what it is to do the digital humanities, in the past, present and future. This book will accordingly be of interest to researchers, teachers and students of the digital humanities; creative humanities, including maker spaces and culture; information studies; the history of computing and technology; and the history of science and the humanities

Troubling binary codes. Studying information technology at the intersection of science and technology studies and feminist technoscience studies

This dissertation provides a study of Information Technology (IT) as professional and technical culture by drawing together the theoretical lenses of Feminist Technoscience Studies (FTS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS). This central topic has been investigated through an empirical research that focuses on two distinct issues: the gender gap and underrepresentation of women in IT educational and professional paths (computer science, computer engineering, computing); the role of digital artifacts and materiality in the process of organizing within an Italian telecommunication company. With regard to the first field, I have carried out a historical analysis of the experience of the first female coders in early digital computing era and I have conducted a set of interviews with contemporary Italian female IT professionals and practitioners who form and participate to networks and campaigns that promote women’s presence and gender awareness in computing. Drawing on contributions from STS and feminist socio-constructivist approaches in science and technology, I shall argue that the analysis of gender divide in IT should go beyond the issues of female discrimination in order to call into question the gendered nature of computer artifacts and technical knowledge (Faulkner, 2001; Misa, 2010). In the second field site, I have gone beyond the visible issues of gender asymmetries in organization in order to challenge the alleged neutral character of technical artifacts and materiality (Latour, 1992) by drawing on contributions from STS and Workplace Studies. Starting from this body of knowledge which calls into question the very boundaries between the social and the technical (Heath & Button, 2002), I have employed analytic sensibilities from FTS and the recent debate on new materialism in feminist theory (Barad, 2007; Alaimo & Hekman, 2008; Hekman, 2010; Dolphijn & van der Tuin, 2012) to trace out the agential role of materiality and technical objects in producing marginal and invisible positions (Haraway, 1988; Star, 1991; Star & Bowker, 2007). In this respect, I shall argue that technical knowledge and non-human actors take part in politics and practices of boundary-making, sustaining divisions and hierarchies (Hughes & Lury, 2013)