Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values

Defining terms in natural language transforms knowledge into values, and this volume explores how corporate, military, academic, and professional values shaped efforts to define computer terminology and establish an information engineering profession. The Cold War fueled government funding for university research and private corporations seeking partnerships to develop technologies for economic prosperity and military dominance. Language standardization was crucial for streamlined communication and professionalization of computer science. The book emphasizes the importance of natural language in shaping computer-human relationships and serves as a reference in technology history and sociolinguistic questions.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 143 pages
Publication date: 28 July 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

When viewed through a political lens, the act of defining terms in natural language arguably transforms knowledge into values. This unique volume explores how corporate, military, academic, and professional values shaped efforts to define computer terminology and establish an information engineering profession as a precursor to what would become computer science. As the Cold War heated up, U.S. federal agencies increasingly funded university researchers and labs to develop technologies, like the computer, that would ensure that the U.S. maintained economic prosperity and military dominance over the Soviet Union. At the same time, private corporations saw opportunities for partnering with university labs and military agencies to generate profits as they strengthened their business positions in civilian sectors. They needed a common vocabulary and principles of streamlined communication to underpin the technology development that would ensure national prosperity and military dominance.

Investigates how language standardization contributed to the professionalization of computer science as separate from mathematics, electrical engineering, and physics. Examines traditions of language standardization in earlier eras of rapid technology development around electricity and radio. Highlights the importance of the analogy of "the computer is like a human" to early explanations of computer design and logic. Traces design and development of electronic computers within political and economic contexts. Foregrounds the importance of human relationships in decisions about computer design.

This in-depth humanistic study argues for the importance of natural language in shaping what people come to think of as possible and impossible relationships between computers and humans.

Weight: 250g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030703752
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021