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International Handbook of Semiotics pp 981–1002Cite as

Semiotics of Computing: Filling the Gap Between Humanity and Mechanical Inhumanity

Abstract

In this chapter, I survey the current of semiotics of computing and show a perspective leading towards computational semiotics. The chapter opens by describing the signification of a train of thought as a semiotics of computing and surveys different approaches taken with respect to applying semiotics to computing. A summary of one possible theory of semiotics is then provided, founded through analysis of computer programs—through which any computing is realized—along three axes: models of signs, kinds of signs, and systems of signs. Lastly, I describe how semiotic consideration of computing could lead to better information processing as a future new domain of computational semiotics.

Keywords

  • Computing
  • Semiotics
  • Programming languages
  • Reflexivity
  • Annotation
  • User interface
  • Engineering
  • de Saussure
  • Peirce

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Fig. 44.1
Fig. 44.2
Fig. 44.3
Fig. 44.4
Fig. 44.5

Notes

  1. 1.

    Theoretical computer science in fact formulates calculation as obtaining a fixed point in a solution space (Gunter 1962).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Advanced Information Technology, Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii

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  1. Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii
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Correspondence to Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education / University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Peter Pericles Trifonas

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Tanaka-Ishii, K. (2015). Semiotics of Computing: Filling the Gap Between Humanity and Mechanical Inhumanity. In: Trifonas, P. (eds) International Handbook of Semiotics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9404-6_44

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