[FRIAM] Newly published paper

[Russ Abbott]

Here's a link
<https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s11023-018-9486-1?author_access_token=yUGp5x7VFXL0LFnjPyUqk_e4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6yZioAY97vbYc24KUVsQotxaAy_ypFyXrNpoaIi6Julwob8a8QUxPPEMvf-y1hBiakFjD6rChQ9oHQpTmAZfLfYApWLV0GvKsGg7zR1z3VVg%3D%3D>
to a non-downloadable version of a paper I just published in *Minds and
Machines. *(Not quite as good as open access, but there was no charge for
it.)

*The Bit (and Three Other Abstractions) Define the Borderline Between
Hardware and Software*

*Abstract** Modern computing is generally taken to consist primarily of
symbol manipulation. But symbols are abstract, and computers are physical.
How can a physical device manipulate abstract symbols? Neither Church nor
Turing considered this question. My answer is that the bit, as a
hardware-implemented abstract data type, serves as a bridge between
materiality and abstraction. Computing also relies on three other
primitive—but more straightforward—abstractions: Sequentiality, State, and
Transition. These physically-implemented abstractions define the borderline
between hardware and software and between physicality and abstraction. At a
deeper level, asking how a physical device can interact with abstract
symbols is the wrong question. The relationship between symbols and
physical devices begins with the realization that human beings already know
what it means to manipulate symbols. We build and program computers to do
what we understand to be symbol manipulation. To understand what that
means, consider a light switch. A light switch doesn’t turn a light on or
off. Those are abstractions. Light switches don’t operate with
abstractions. We build light switches (and their associated circuitry) so
that when flipped, the world is changed in such a way that we understand
the light to be on or off. Similarly, we build computers to perform
operations that we understand as manipulating symbols.*

*Keywords** Symbol· Abstraction· Hardware· Software· Physical symbol
system· Hardware–software bridge· Type· Abstract data type· Bit·
Affordances· Concept externalization· Symbol grounding*

-- Russ Abbott
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+RussAbbott1
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