Another short post on a second day in a row. Could this be the start of a streak? We’ll see sometime next week.

So I’ve started using a phrase in my own work, talking about “the computational humanities”, and while I use the phrase because it’s evocative it’s not terribly well-defined. Here’s my attempt to, well, not so much define it as talk about the landscape I’m trying to conjure.

So we understand much of how computational ideas and materials help the STEM fields:

  • simulations
  • numerical solutions
  • computer-aided design
  • automated theorem proving
  • computer algebra systems
  • &c.

But what of the humanities? You see, I think computation as a field of study has at least as much to offer the humanities as it does the sciences. I think there’s so many unexplored areas here that it’s almost impossible to even survey them.

I’m talking about intersections that range from:

  • video games as connection between simulation and narrative theories
  • procedural generation as an exploration of what makes different art forms
  • partnerships of human creativity and computational creativity
  • philosophy & computation
    • theorem proving
    • agent based philosophy
    • phenomenology & AR/VR
  • ergodic fiction and the meaning of stories
  • the creation of digital heirlooms
  • computational tools and art-therapy
  • exo-brains and the extended self
    • in particular I have an interest in this for coping with trauma
  • ???

I know this seems like an incredibly broad set of things and yet I feel like I’m not even beginning to see the limits. All of these possibilities, though, are what I mean when I’m talking about the computational humanities.