The Humanistic Computation Project
Computing is not just a branch of engineering. It touches on language and philosophy, the nature of life and how we think. It is a liberal art. And as a result, we need a humanistic approach to computing.
This project is aimed at creating a living syllabus, a community, and a framework for these ideas, one informed by a deep “historical sense” that ensures computing does not remain a “pop culture.” We must make computers work for people, guided by history and the humanities.
The goal of this project is to cultivate a community of fellow travelers, educational resources, and potentially even gatherings to make this approach the default in how we relate to computing.
Please explore below a list of books, articles and essays, courses that take this approach, and even organizations operating in this space.
We need more humanistic computing. Let’s make it happen.
To get involved, please reach out here.
Created: January 2, 2025 | Modified: October 20, 2025
Humanistic Computation
Computing Culture
History of Computation
Computing Fundamentals
Computational Interdisciplinarity
Computational Fictions
Computational Supporting Materials
Articles and Essays
What Kind of Sorcery Is This? Why code is so often compared to magic.
An App Can Be a Home-Cooked Meal
Building a Historical Sense in Computing
On the cruelty of really teaching computing science.
Is hand coding becoming obsolete?
Processing: the Software that Shaped Creative Coding
Early Digital Computer Art at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
How do we tell truths that might hurt?
How Lisp Became God's Own Programming Language
The forgotten software that inspired our modern world
ChatGPT Made Me Cry and Other Adventures in AI Land
Why computer modeling should become a popular hobby
DNA seen through the eyes of a coder (or, If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail)
Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?
Lenia: Biology of Artificial Life
The case of the 500-mile email
Courses and Lectures
Folktales from the history of computing
RETRO: How and Why the Past Comes Back
Other Organizations
Guiding Philosophy
Computation is a kind of universal solvent. In studying computation, you are not simply thinking about the nature of for-loops, or data structures, or databases. By taking the nature of computation seriously, you are able to interrogate the nature of language and how humans think, as well as the limits of mathematics. Insights into computation address profound aspects of biology or even philosophy. When we model the world in silico, simulation can help us think about the complex nature of how we build scientific models, or even reality itself. And dwelling on computation also draws in the humanities, whether it’s literary analysis and biblical studies, or code as magic, the history of ideas, or even Greek mythology.
Computation has the ability to provide a uniquely unifying framework, exerting a massive centripetal force on ideas and fields of knowledge. We must nurture its connective power. So what is the field that focuses on this power, one that is essentially a mashup of computer science, the humanities, and a sprinkling of the sciences both natural and social? It might be what I termed logismics. Or we could simply refer to it as humanistic computation, or even the liberal art of computing. But whatever we call it, this page is designed to act as a resource (and living syllabus) for exploring this burgeoning field.
(text adapted from my essay "Computation as Philology")
The Humanistic Computation Project is a continuing project. If you would like something to be included in it, please contact Samuel Arbesman.
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