Software Metaphysics

[Kent Palmer]

I have just started a series of working papers called Software Metaphysics and would like to get feedback on the first one.

See http://kp0.me/SoftwareHyperBeing 

In the 90s I wrote an article on Software Ontology, see http://kp0.me/SoftOntos 

I have decided to revisit this topic of the Philosophy of Software in relation to my exploration of Schemas Theory which I am expanding as a framework in order to relate Software to Phenomenology and Fundamental Ontology.

For further background see  . . . 

http://kp0.me/SwaySchemaTheoryTutorialPart2

http://kp0.me/SwaySchemaTheoryTutorialPart1

Also http://schematheory.net

Unfortunately it seems that the conversation here on 'Philosophy in a time of Software' has dried up somewhat.

However, if you are interested in talking about 'Software Ontology' or 'Software Metaphysics' then I am game for such a conversation.

Any feedback you might offer on the tutorial or these papers on Software would be appreciated.

For general conversation on Continental Philosophy see http://kp0.me/ContinentalPhilSeminar

Kent Palmer

http://kdp.me

[Kent Palmer]

Greg Borenstein encouraged me to write something about my ideas rather than merely post links.

So here goes . . .

First of all I am a software engineer and systems engineer who is also interested in Software Philosophy. 

I have spent quite a few years working on the Foundations of Systems Engineering as you can see if you visit my page at http://schematheory.net This included getting a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering see http://emergentdesign.net 

However, I have decided to bring my research back toward software engineering subjects and it hit me that one way to do that was to revisit my ideas about Software Ontology.http://kp0.me/SoftOntos 

I always had the view that the framework that I was developing in terms of Systems Engineering foundations would apply to Software Engineering as well. 

It seems like since I wrote my original paper on Software Ontology, still very little progress has been made in the Philosophy of Software.

I note two recent books.

Software Theory: A Cultural and Philosophical Study

by Federica Frabetti 

The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age

by David M. Berry 

I wonder if anyone here has read these books, and what they might think about them? I have not read them yet.

My latest interest is Genetic Phenomenology:  http://kp0.me/geneticphen3

I plan to treat Software Metaphysics in terms of Genetic Phenomenology, as well as Ontology, Hermeneutics  and Dialectics.

I have a framework I have developed called the Meta-levels of Being  http://kp0.me/MetaLevelsOfBeing

My contention in my paper  http://kp0.me/SoftwareHyperBeing 

is that Software exemplifies Hyper Being which is Derrida's Differance.

I just re-read Derrida's Introduction to Husserl's Origin of Geometry where he introduces the idea of writing as the Achilles heal of Husserl's project to ground Absolute Objectivity of Science. In that work he also introduces the idea of Differance as the delay/deferring of the always already lost origin of Geometry.

As I did in my earlier paper I would then relate AI, Artificial Life, Artificial Sociality, Virtual Worlds, etc with what Merleau-Ponty calls Wild Being. See Wild Software Meta-systems http://works.bepress.com/kent_palmer/1/

There is another kind of Being beyond that called Ultra Being which seems to give some support for Kurzweil's idea of the singularity, although I critique his idea because Ultra Being is I think deeper than what Kruzweil techno-apocalyptic vision suggests

Anyway that is the basic idea that I have in mind. I would go through the various Continental Philosophies that underpin this view of Software based on Fundamental Ontology.

It basically looks at software as an example of Hyper Being, one of the few human artifacts with that kind of Being.

Once we know that software embodies Hyper Being then we can consider that what is made out of software must have Wild Being.

All this was said in the earlier article from long ago, but now I have the framework of Schemas Theory to help me be more precise about what I was saying way back then.

I am trying to determine if there is enough interest in Software Metaphysics to make the work of writing such a book worth while. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Who are the serious philosophers studying Software in the Philosophical literature today?

Kent Palmer

http://kdp.me

http://think.net

http://thinknet.quora.com/