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From Ancient to Modern Computing: A History of Information Hiding
PrePrint
ISSN: 1058-6180
Federico Gobbo, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila
Marco Benini, University of Leeds, Leeds
In this paper, a methodological approach to the historiography of computing is proposed in terms of information hiding, i.e. the introduction of Levels of Abstraction (LoAs) between the human being and the computing machine. This approach applies the LoAs in terms of the epistemological levellism proposed within the Philosophy of Information (PI) to the transition from ancient to modern computing. In particular, the black box metaphor and Von Neumann's architectures are discussed. Also, a formalisation of the method of LoAs is proposed as a mathematical counterpart. Information itself is then treated as structure-preserving functions, so that a LoA can distinguish what kind of information gets hidden when human beings interact with computing machines.
Citation:
Federico Gobbo, Marco Benini, "From Ancient to Modern Computing: A History of Information Hiding," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 04 Feb. 2013. IEEE computer Society Digital Library. IEEE Computer Society, <http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2013.1>
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