**Links to**: [[Information]], [[Computer]], [[Computation]], [[Compression]], [[Compression becomes convention]], [[Software]], [[Hardware]], [[Structure]], [[Entropy]], [[Noise]], [[Shannon]], [[Weaver]], [[Cybernetics]], [[Statistics]], [[John von Neumann]], [[Bit]], [[Binary]] [[Combinatorics]], [[Simondon]], [[Trace]], [[Legibility]], [[Gregory Bateson]], [[Difference]], [[Foundation]], and more. **Context**: Erasmus University, Advanced Academic Skills Course, 2025-26. # Philosophies of computation and information **What is information? What is (its) computation?** Our intensifying digital environment forces these questions upon philosophers and technicians alike. Computation and information are both the substrate (the reason you are able to read these words) and the symptom of our times (the result of specific histories and narrations of relevance through technical development). How to analyze them anew? It seems legitimate to ask these questions in order to rethink philosophies of technology beyond the current analytic/continental divide, and especially beyond the SSH/STEM divide. By drawing on the generative potential of, e.g., the mathematics-aesthetics continuum, 5E traditions, as well as exploring the current development of ‘mortal’; quantum; analog; as well as traditional silicon-based digital computing: the **aim** of this course is to draw upon usual suspects and alternative voices to investigate the **concepts of information and computation anew**, abandoning territorial entrenchments that either over- or underdetermine their possibilities. The search for foundational principles urges mathematics, engineering and philosophy alike: by finding areas of con- and divergence, we will explore interpretations of these fundamental concepts to develop a plastic and open-minded understanding of them. Participants should understand that these concepts carry specific histories, but that they can also be questioned and reinterpreted. The goal of the course will be to evaluate these insights, resulting in a collective; collaborative project in the form of an interview (with a person to be determined during our class process).  ### Aims of this course: 1. **Students will gain a general understanding of, and become capable of at least discussing, if not explaining**, the philosophical relevance underlying the concepts of computation and information, drawing from diverse traditions.  2. **Students will critically analyze** how these concepts can be interpreted across disciplines, as well as adapted to different discourses, considering the semantic pertinence to their own academic background and motivations.  3. **Students will apply** their understanding of computation and information to analyze case studies from their own fields/interests and reflect on the interdisciplinary relevance of these concepts.  4. **Students will evaluate** interdisciplinary insights by collaboratively creating a final project, which will take the form of a (video recorded and/or textually published) interview with an expert of their choice, showcasing connections between different fields. **GenAI**  During this course we will discuss and sometimes engage with so-called GenAI. Some aspects of the coursework, and evaluation, will thus be affected by input that is not “directly” from your brain crevices, but rather from some datacenter (probably one around the corner). It is important that you remember this: whenever something does not cost you any effort: that means that the **labor was done elsewhere**. In the case of language models, [recent research](https://www.brainonllm.com/), is showing how unhelpful they are when it comes to thinking and learning in contexts like university education. Please keep in mind the severe issues ([resource wastefulness](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.03271), [genocide](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they), [displacement](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/technology/amazon-ai-data-centers.html), etc.) at hand when we mine datacenters for results we could have otherwise have had a fun conversation in class about.   All this to say: use of GenAI is allowed in this class, if it is absolutely necessary and mindful. Keep this rule of thumb for all your GenAI engagements :D.  It is also important to note that this class is highly experimental. Come prepared to be surprised! Some things will be easy for some, and difficult for others, the ideal situation is one in which we learn from each other towards attenuation into wanting to know more. Please also note that we are dealing with topics that are quite literally (part of) the hardest unsolved out there, so nothing about this should be smooth sailing, and we should all help each other in learning along.  **A note on software/platforms in general**  We are [complicit](https://www.cs.ru.nl/~hiemstra/radboud-against-microsoft/) in a lot of the above-mentioned problems by relying on the tools that the university offers. This could be a lot better. There are alternative services we could make use of, and we should support these, such as [Cryptpad](https://cryptpad.fr/), [RiseUp](https://riseup.net/), and others. Colleagues at Utrecht University—and many others, too—shared [a letter](https://www.uu.nl/en/opinion/open-letter-to-the-executive-university-board-calling-for-a-transformation-to-digital-autonomy), in early 2025 urging their board to address this issue. If you feel inspired: always ask higher up, IT, and whomever (also me) to provide you with reasons and/or alternatives for our current software use. The more we get involved in these issues, the faster they can resolve.  **Literature**  **19 Nov 2025: Introduction to course, and some initial takes on the concept of information**  Floridi, Luciano, ed. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_. London: Routledge, 2016. Introduction (3 pages).  Harshman pp. 8-10 in Floridi, Luciano, ed. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_. London: Routledge, 2016 (2 pages).  Lombardi, Olimpia. “Mathematical Theory of Information (Shannon)”, ch. 4, pp. 30-6, in Floridi, Luciano, ed. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_. London: Routledge, 2016 (6 pages).  Liu, Lydia. “Where is the writing of digital media?”, ch. 1, (pp. 15-37) in _The Freudian Robot_, University of Chicago Press, 2010 (22 pages).  **26 Nov 2025: Computation: formalities and implications**  Mbembe, Achille. _The Earthly Community: Reflections on the last Utopia_, ch. 2: “The universal right to breathe” (pp. 17-34). V2 Publishing, 2022.  Piccinini, Gualtiero and Andrea Scarantino “Computation and Information”, ch. 3, pp. 23-9 in in Floridi, Luciano, ed. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_. London: Routledge, 2016 (6 pages).  Moore, Cristopher and Stephan Mertens. _The nature of computation,_ prologue: pp. 1-14. Oxford University Press, 2011 (14 pages).   **3 December 2025: Language, chunking and parsing strings of relevance I**  Masterman, Margaret. ‘Classification, Concept Formation and Language’. Paper presented at the _Fourth Annual Conference of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science_, September 1959, pp. 57-80 in Chapter 3: _Language, Cohesion and Form_, ed. Yorick Wilks, 2005 (23 pages).   Wolfram, Stephen. “[Generative AI and the mental imagery of alien minds](https://Generative%20AI%20Space%20and%20the%20Mental%20Imagery%20of%20Alien%20Minds), Wolfram Writings, 2023 (about 15 pages).  **10 December 2025:** **Language, chunking and parsing strings of relevance II**  Liu, Lydia. “The invention of printed English”, ch. 2, (pp. 39-97) in _The Freudian Robot_, University of Chicago Press, 2010 (58 pages).  Aaronson, Scott. _Quantum Computing Since Democritus_ (ch. 2: sets, pp. 8-17), Cambridge University Press, 2013 (11 pages).  **17 December 2025: (Computational) Music and organic patterning**  Yuping Ren, Iris, Anja Volk, Wouter Swierstra, Remco C. Veltkamp. “A Computational Evaluation of Musical Pattern Discovery Algorithms.” https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.12325, 2020 (24 pages).  Turing, Alan M. “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis”, _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London_. Series B, _Biological Sciences_, Vol. 237, No. 641. (pp. 37-72). Aug. 14, 1952 (35 pages).  **7 January 2026: Starting the new year in high gear:** **_Mortal Computation_**   Ororbia, Alexander, and Karl Friston. “Mortal Computation: A Foundation for Biomimetic Intelligence.” _arXiv_ preprint arXiv:2311.09589, 2023 (47 pages).  **14 January 2026:**  Guest lecture by Milan Stürmer on the work of Bernard Stiegler. Readings TBA.   **21 January 2026:**  Interview with Alicia Juarrero. **Final note**  This course is (and we **all** are) limited: please remember that. We will only be able to cover some aspects of these complex concepts, from partial perspectives. Another important remark I want to stress is that we remain open and _positively_ cynical, if possible. Arrogance and apathy are sometimes inevitable human traits, but rarely pave the road to good stuff. We are in this together, the goal is to remain curious and willing to learn with and from others. Before becoming too cynical, remember that technicians working on the development of so-called “AI” are **together with**, not against their detractors, in understanding that teleological information-processing needs to construct itself as something _other_ than the search for “optimality”. The search for foundational principles therefore urges engineering and philosophy alike: and we are all error-prone. Methods from mathematical formalization need to be re-probed for their anthropic relevance. The concept of the anthropic needs to become newly explored beyond traditional, “Western,” monocultural humanisms. Generative AI currently presents the public with a myriad of questions: how to approach it and what promises/challenges does it present when it comes to thinking the future of labor, of creativity, etc. The horizon ahead is radically unpredictable, and probabilistic mapping—the current strategy for thinking the future through technics—will get us far, but we might be inclined to explore other curiosities (is there something beyond probability? This is a question). A new type of conversation is necessary in order to organize current life, and life ahead. This course is intended as a modest step towards possible dialogues. Each class will attempt to cover a lot, sometimes the same topic from different angles, so it will happen that we treat “information” a few weeks in a row, but from entirely different perspectives. N.B.: It will be of **paramount importance** throughout the course to present radical, dissenting traditions as **permanent** lenses for our discourse, rather than dedicating a single session or two to them as a “side topic”, as is often the case in other contexts. At the same time, as already mentioned, it will be useful if we remain positively cynical: dismissal for dismissal’s sake is but one of the millions of strategies we can use to learn. %% [[Mental proof]] [[Philosophies of computation and information notes]]