Information Technology Reference
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structure is also represented, in the end, by bits on a computer. This will appear as a
program overhead that is used to support a chosen program organisation or structure
and in this sense only the program interpretation has changed. We can say that within
the referential paradigm:
•
The only strictly formal and unique meaning a computer program can have is
found within a computer.
However, we know that computer programs have some other relationship to the
world. This will be explored in the next chapter.
8.3.3
Social Consequences
There are also social consequences of the view adopted by the Tractatus in that it is
assumed that rules can be created for all situations and as such, these rules can bypass
human judgement. It also assumes that there is only one correct way of seeing the
world and so all human existence can be governed by some finite set of laws. It is
because there is a tendency to support such a 'rational' view that we now have all the
measures of performance and rules of assessment in the modern work environment. It
was this rational view that was the driving force behind Artificial Intelligence during
the 1960s and it was the major reason for the demise of Cybernetics as a serious
science.
References
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Edwards C (2014) Billion core brains. Eng Technol 9(3):62-65.
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Wiener N (1948) Cybernetics: or control and communication in the animal and the machine. MIT,
Cambridge, ISBN 0262 230070, ISBN 026273009X
Wittgenstein L (1921) Tractatus logico-philosophicus (English edition 1961). Routledge and Kegan
Paul, London
Wittgenstein L (1953) Philosophical investigations. Blackwell, Oxford
