I lead the Humanities Computing Group.

Willard McCarty has described Humanities Computing as an academic field concerned with the application of computing tools to arts and humanities data or to their use in the creation of these data.

It is methodological in nature and interdisciplinary in scope. It works at the intersection of computing with the arts and humanities, focusing both on the pragmatic issues of how computing assists scholarship and teaching in the disciplines and on the theoretical problems of shift in perspective brought about by computing.

It seeks to define the common ground of techniques and approaches to data, and how scholarly processes may be understood and mechanised. It studies the sociology and epistemology of knowledge as these are affected by computing as well as the fundamental cognitive problem of how we know what we know.

Its tools are derived from practical work in computer science, but like that work its application of them uses models of intelligence developed in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. It tests the utility of these models to illuminate particular objects of study by direct involvement in the fields of application. Its object of knowledge is all the source material of the arts and humanities viewed as data.

Like comparative literature it takes its subject matter from other disciplines and is guided by their concerns, but it returns to them ever more challenging questions and new ways of thinking through old problems.

Within this broad inter-disciplinary canvas I have three main areas of interest:

(1) Data Preservation

Working with Janet Delve and Dan Pinchbeck (of the Humanities Computing Research Group) I am part of a European consortium which is deveoping techniques for preserving digital objects: text, sound, and image files; multimedia documents, websites, databases, videogames etc. The overall aim of the project is to facilitate universal access to our cultural heritage by developing flexible tools for accessing and storing a wide range of digital objects.

We will address the problems of transferring digital objects stored on outdated computer media such as floppy discs onto current storage devices. This will involve the specification of file formats and the production of transfer tools exploited within a framework, and will take into account possible legal and technical issues.

Although primarily aimed at those involved in Cultural Heritage, such as memory institutions and games museums, the Emulation Access Platform will also serve the needs of a wide range of organisations and individuals because of its universal approach.

Overall, we will create the foundation for the next generation of permanent access strategies based on emulation.

The particular focus of the Humanities Computing Group within the wider effort is the investigation of metadata models and the development of guidelines for mapping digital objects onto emulated manifestations.

(2) The History of Computing.

I am particularly interested in the development of the electronic digital computer. I begin in 1936 with Turing’s paper “On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem” and finish, more or less, with Turing’s death in 1954. This captures well most of the significant early developments in the field on both sides of the Atlantic and opens up for study a number of areas which have received little attention elsewhere or have been treated with less rigour than one would hope.

I am focussed on the, largely unknown, contribution to early computing of the Cambridge topologist Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman. This has led me to investigate Newman's attempt to build a computer at the University of Manchester immediately after the end of WWII. My research has been able to show that the conventional history of the period is substantially in error. I have been able to uncover three significant "myths" which underlie much of the dominant discourse in British History of Computing.

(3) Paraconsistent reasoning

This is a way of overcoming the inability of computers to deal properly with inconsistent data by virtue of being based on classical logic and therby subject to the logical principle ex contradictione qudlibet. Since the turn of the 20th century a number of interesting alternatives to classical logic have been propsed offering varying degrees of effectiveness. Unfortunately such success as they have achieved has been purchased at the cost of sacrificing most of the reasoning tools on which systems, in practice, depend.

I have developed a completely novel approach which has resulted in the development of a group of new paraconsistent systems which arguably achieve an optimal weakening of classical logic. The Epsilon family of logics demonstrably outperform all other 4-valued paraconsistent systems. For the first time, a complete replacement for classical logic can now be contemplated.

As an extension of this work I have provided a tree derivation procedure as a refinement of Beth’s semantic tableaux method and Gentzen’s sequent calculus that provides a straightforward means by which truth-functional multivalued and paraconsistent reasoning systems may be automated.

Qualifications

• B.A. Hons (Philosophy)
• Ph.D. (Artificial Intelligence)

Current Research Projects

The Newman Digital Archive

I am leading the development of a digital archive comprising the papers and memorabilia of the mathematician and computer pioneer M.H.A. Newman. This is a joint project with St. John’s College, Cambridge. The physical archive currently contains approximately 650 items and the digital version is in excess of 3000 scanned pages. When complete this will be the world’s biggest digital archive in the History of Computing. I also worked on the Turing Digital Archive (currently the world’s largest such enterprise)..

Authored Books

• Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems, Ellis Horwood, Chichester ,1989

Edited Books

• The Pioneers of Computing Vol 1: Europe. The Science Museum Palgrave Macmillan, London, date tba
• The Pioneers of Computing Vol 2: USA. The Science Museum Palgrave Macmillan, date tba

Journal Publications

• 2009 The contribution of M.H.A. Newman and his mathematicians to the creation of the Manchester 'Baby' ,The British Society for the History of Mathematics Bulletin, Taylor & Francis, ISSN 1749-8430, Volume 24 (in press)
• 2009 Tom Kilburn (1921 - 2001) IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, ISSN: 1058-6180 (forthcoming)
• 2008 Review of "Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine: The master codebreaker's struggle to build the modern computer.", History & Philosophy of Logic, Taylor & Francis, ISSN 0144-5340, Vol. 29 Issue 4 (in press)
• 2008 Was the Manchester 'Baby' conceived at Bletchley Park?, BCS eWIC, http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_tur04_paper3.pdf
• 2007 Patrick Blackett: Physicist, Radical and Chief Architect of the Manchester Computing Phenomenon. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 29 No.3 ISSN: 1058-6180, pp.82-85 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2007.44
• 2007 Frederic Calland Williams: The Manchester Baby's Chief Engineer., IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 29 No.4 ISSN: 1058-6180 pp.90-93 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2007.54
• 2007 Max Newman: Topologist, Codebreaker and Pioneer of Computing .IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 29 No.3 ISSN: 1058-6180, pp.76-81 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2007.42
• 2007 Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine: The master codebreaker's struggle to build the modern computer, History and Philosophy of Logic, ISSN 0144-5340, Taylor & Francis,
• 2005 A research note on the discovery of a prototype Hollerith machine in Paris , The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Technology, ISSN: 1177-1380, Co-Author(s) Hans Pufal and Janet Delve
• 2005 The French History of Computing Scene , IEEE Annals of the History of Compuitng, ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2004 Pioneers of Payroll on computers: LEO, the Army, the Navy Dockyards and De Havilland , IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, ISSN: 1058-6180, Co-Author(s) Janet Delve
• 2004 Turing in Manchester: A celebration, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2004 Commemorating the life and death of Alan M. Turing , IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2003 ACONIT: trying to put the ghost back in the machine.Co-author: Hans Pufal. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Vol. 24 No.3 ,ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2003 Max Newman: forgotten father of the computer? Co-authors: Janet Delve / Mary Croarken. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Vol. 24 No.2,ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2003 Artificial Intelligence: recollections of the pioneers. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Vol. 24 No.1 ,ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2002 Artificial Life and the Chinese Room argument. Co -author: Jack Copeland Artificial Life Vol. VIII No. 3
• 2001 “The Pinkerton Lecture” Co -Author: Janet Delve. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Vol. 23 No.2 pp.68-73, ISSN: 1058-6180
• 2000 Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer. Information, Communication & Society
• 2000 Makin’ Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer. Information, Communication & Society
• 1999 Slaves of the Machine? Research in Philosophy and Technology

Other

• 2008 It's amazing how many shapes the neck of a bottle can take: how a topologist changed the face of British Computing, The Newcomem Society, Portsmouth Branch
• 2008 The development of the computing community of practice: How physicists, electrical engineers and mathematicians combined to create a new community of practice. Three Societies Conference, Keble College, Oxford.
• 2008 60 years after the birth of the computing revolution: An historical reassessment of the development of the Manchester Baby. Sorbonne, Paris
• 2007 A principle-governed partial exploration of the set of all possible 4-valued contradiction-tolerant logics. IFIP/IIASA/GAMM Workshop on Coping with Uncertainty (CwU) Robust Decisions
• 2007 A simplified system for multivalent and paraconsistent inference using a tree derivation procedure, European Computing Conference 2007
• 2007 A semantic-tableaux procedure for the 4-valued paraconsistent logic Epsilon111., European Computing Conference 2007
• 2007 LM 4 : Enabling autonomous intelligent machines to handle contradictory information., Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI'07) Vol.II. ISBN: 1-60132-023-X, pp.495-500
• 2007 The contribution of M.H.A. Newman and the Department of Mathematics to the development of the world’s first stored-program computer' , British Society for History of Science, Manchester,
• 2007 Three myths of early British computing, Computer History Museum, Palo Alto, California, USA.
• 2007 Challenging the engineering perspective on computing history, SHOT 2007, Washington DC
• 2005 Broadening the Scope of Electronic Book Publishing' , IAHC Amsterdam, September 14th-17th 2005, ISBN: 90-6984-456-7, Co-Author(s) Richard Healey
• 2004 Technology transfer in the 1940s (Invited Paper) BSHM / CSHPM Joint meeting Cambridge, UK, July 2004
• 2004 Was the Manchester Baby conceived in Bletchley ? (Invited paper) Turing 2004, Manchester, UK
• 2004 'E-Checker: A prototype tool for investigating some properties of multivalent logic systems' , AISB 2004 (11th Workshop on Automated Reasoning) - Liverpool University, ISBN: 1-0902956-26-4, Co-Author(s) Peter W. Pearson
• 2004 A systematic examination of paraconsistent logic schemes, University of Salerno - 13th May 2004
• 2004 The long shadow of Colossus: How Bletchley Park changed the face of British Computing , BCS Computer Conservation Society: 28th Oct 2004
• 2003 New directions in paraconsistency. University of Manchester, 7th November 2003
• 2003 Has the Chinese room argument shown ‘strong artificial life’ to be impossible? Co-author: Jack Copeland. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Florida
• 2003 A simplified system for multivalent and paraconsistent inference using a tree derivation procedure. 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2003), Florida
• 2003 Max Newman: forgotten father of the computer, The Royal Institution, UK
• 2003 A versatile tree derivation procedure system for multivalent and paraconsis tent inference. AISB 2002 (10th Workshop on Automated Reasoning) Liverpool University, UK
• 2003 'Two values suffice for logic.... true or false?' , University of Manchester - 7th November 2003
• 2002 Is ‘Strong A -life’ possible? Co -author: Jack Copeland. 4th Asia -Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution And Learning (SEAL 2002), Singapore
• 2002 A solution to the problem of contradiction in knowledge discovery applications. AISB 2002 (9th Workshop on Automated Reasoning) Imperial College, London
• 2002 LM4: a classically paraconsistent logic for autonomous intelligent machines The 6th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2002), Florida
• 2002 Developing a framework for investigating inconsistency handling in automated reasoning 6th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2002), Florida
• 2002 The role of Max Newman in the development of the modern computer. 'Intelligence in the 1940s: Newman, Turing, and machines'

Professional Service

Editorship:

• Series Editor: IEEE Computer Society, History of Computing Series

Awards, fellowships, memberships etc.:

• Member of the IEEE Computer Society Publications Board
• Member IFIP WG 9.7 History of Computing Committee (Vice Chairman from 2009)
• Founding member of the Executive Committee of the European History of Computing Group
• Member of the Executive Committee of the BCS Computer Conservation Society (CSS) for which I have served as webmaster and meetings co-ordinator
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Association for History and Computing (AHC)
• Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Member of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics
• Member of the Institute of Historical Research
• Member of the British Society for the History of Mathematics
• Past Visiting Research Fellow, Christchurch University, NZ

Other:

• Reviewer for numerous conferences and journals including IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
• Webmaster for the BCS Computer Conservation Society (CSS)
• Meetings co-ordinator for the BCS Computer Conservation Society (CSS)
• Co-organiser of the UK History of Computing Research In Progress Workshops