The Philosophy of Software

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. The Idea of Code

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 1-28

3. What Is Code?

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 29-63

4. Reading and Writing Code

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 64-93

5. Running Code

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 94-118

6. Towards a Phenomenology of Computation

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 119-141

7. Real-Time Streams

   • David M. Berry

   Pages 142-171

8. Back Matter

   Pages 172-200

   PDF

This book is a critical introduction to code and software that develops an understanding of its social and philosophical implications in the digital age. Written specifically for people interested in the subject from a non-technical background, the book provides a lively and interesting analysis of these new media forms.

• media
• New Media
• philosophy
• software

'This is a beautifully written book that pulls off the difficult task of introducing the subject of software and the workings of code to the non specialist whilst also providing an original take of the philosophical and the cultural importance of Code in contemporary culture.' - Michael Bull, University of Sussex, UK

'The book is warmly recommended:[Berry's] understanding of software is fantastic. It reaches out to so many discussions and has so many implications that it is an engine in itself: it produces ideas.' - Jussi Parikka, Leonardo on-line

'What is important about The Philosophy of Software is that it really is about what it claims to be about. Rather than trying to shoehorn software into an existing philosophical or political agenda it considers software as a thing in itself and finds those philosophers and philosophical ideas that best address the vitally important phenomenon of software. However much philosophy, computer science or cybercultural theoryyou may know this is a book that will set you thinking about software anew.' - Rob Myers, Furtherfield

'One of the most prolific contributors to the CCSWGs, David M. Berry has also contributed one of the most extensive manuscripts on reading code and code culture. The Philosophy of Software contains chapters on the epistemology and ontology of code, reading and writing code, running code, and the phenomenology of code. Written for a general audience, the book reads several code examples including the Microsoft Windows 2000 source code and obfuscated code competitions.' - Mark C. Marino, Computational Culture, 2014

David M. Berry is Reader in the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab, UK. His books include Critical Theory and the Digital; Copy Rip Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source; Understanding Digital Media and Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design.

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