Steve Russ

A new paradigm for computer-based decision support

We identify and address a fundamental general problem which we regard as crucial for the widespread, effective use of decision support systems (DSS) in the future: how can we substantially improve the quality of interaction, and the degree of flexible engagement, between humans and computers? Rather than seeking an answer in additional technical functionality, we propose a new paradigm for computing that is human-centered and that adopts a novel, observation-oriented approach to data modelling. We report a recent practical work (a timetabling instrument) showing an unusual degree of openness for interaction, and we give evidence that our approach can encompass conventional tools such as expert systems.

Re)defining computing curricula by (re)defining computing

What is the core of Computing? This paper defines the discipline of computing as centered around the notion of modeling, especially those models that are automatable and automatically manipulable. We argue that this central idea crucially connects models with languages and machines rather than focusing on and around computational artifacts, and that it admits a very broad set of fields while still distinguishing the discipline from mathematics, engineering and science. The resulting computational curriculum focuses on modeling, scales and limits, simulation, abstraction, and automation as key components of a computationalist mindset.

Experimenting with computing

We distinguish two kinds of experimental activity: post-theory and exploratory. Post-theory experiment enjoys computer support that is well-aligned to the classical theory of computation. Exploratory experiment, in contrast, arguably demands a broader conception of computing. Empirical Modelling (EM) is proposed as a more appropriate conceptual framework in which to provide computational support for exploratory experiment. In the process, it promises to provide integrated computational support for both exploratory and post-theory experiment. We first sketch the motivation for EM and illustrate its potential for supporting experimentation, then briefly highlight the semantic challenge it poses and the philosophical implications.

Computing for construal: an exploratory study of desert ant navigation

Abstract The study of ant navigation is a rich source of empirical data and speculative theories that has been well-documented in the scientific literature. We describe and illustrate how an approach to computer-based modelling (“Empirical Modelling”) can be used to devise construals to support the exploratory experimental activities that inform an understanding of desert ant navigation.

Making Construals as a New Digital Skill: Dissolving the Program - and the Programmer - Interface

Making a construal is a way of using the computer to help us in making sense of a situation. Its merits as a new digital skill for developing open educational resources in the constructionist tradition are illustrated using a basic construal of shopping activity. Making construals is the central theme of the three year EU Erasmus+ CONSTRUIT! project. This paper takes the form of an introductory tutorial highlighting key qualities of construals that will shape the CONSTRUIT! agenda.

Cognitive artefacts for decision support

We introduce a novel approach to computer-based modelling which allows the construction of cognitive artefacts with an unusual degree of openness and a potential for close integration with other artefacts and with human processes. Four particular artefacts concerning railway operation, timetabling, restaurant management and warehouse management are described briefly and attention is drawn to those properties concerning knowledge representation and communication which show that the modelling methods used have a significant contribution to make the development of more effective decision support systems in a business context.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences

Why does mathematics work so well in describing some parts of the natural world? This question is profound, ancient, far-reaching and compelling. It seems to become more so in each respect as time goes by, at least for some people. For them it is an intellectual catalyst, serving as stimulus for further thought and questions at many levels without ever being significantly resolved itself. It was put in a particularly evocative form by the physicist Eugene Wigner as the title of a lecture in 1959 in New York: ‘The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences’. He was well-qualified for the task having discovered in the 1930s that the well-established mathematical theory of groups was just what he needed to make important progress in atomic physics. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 ‘for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles’. His 1959 lecture was published in 1960 (presumably with a minimum of editorial attention, hence its rather informal style). His paper and the themes around it, being re-visited fifty years on, form the main subject of this issue of ISR. Wigner’s central thesis was that mathematical concepts are often defined and developed in one context and then, perhaps much later, turn out to have a completely unanticipated but highly effective application in another context. Instead of citing the example of group theory and particle physics he mentions the way in which complex Hilbert space (developed as a natural part of functional analysis around 1900) turned out to be invaluable in the formulation of quantum mechanics a few decades later. In reference to such unexpected application he says, ‘It is difficult to avoid the impression that a miracle confronts us here’. Under the term ‘effectiveness’ he includes the fact that a mathematical formulation ‘leads in an uncanny number of cases to an amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena’, with accuracy ‘beyond all reasonable expectations’. He describes the usefulness of mathematics in the sciences as ‘bordering on the mysterious’ and declares that ‘there is no rational explanation for it’.

Participative process modelling

This paper motivates and illustrates a new approach to providing computer support for participative modelling of processes, and for modelling participative processes. This approach relies upon constructing computer-based artefacts that serve an explanatory role. The construction of such artefacts proceeds in a distributed and incremental fashion in association with the development of a working understanding amongst the participants engaged in process comprehension and design. The approach to computer-based modelling is illustrated with reference to work in progress on modelling the processes of warehouse operation.

Bolzano’s measurable numbers: are they real?

During the early 1830s Bernard Bolzano, working in Prague, wrote a manuscript giving a foundational account of numbers and their properties. In the final section of his work he described what he called ‘infinite number expressions’ and ‘measurable numbers’. This work was evidently an attempt to provide an improved proof of the sufficiency of the criterion usually known as the ‘Cauchy criterion’ for the convergence of an infinite sequence. Bolzano had in fact published this criterion four years earlier than Cauchy who, in his work of 1821, made no attempt at a proof. Any such proof required the construction or definition of real numbers and this, in essence, was what Bolzano achieved in his work on measurable numbers. It therefore pre-dates the well-known constructions of Dedekind, Cantor and many others by several decades. Bolzano’s manuscript was partially published in 1962 and more fully published in 1976. We give an account of measurable numbers, the properties Bolzano proved about them and the controversial reception they have prompted since their publication.

Life history of Robert Grassmann, written by himself (1890)

To the author it has always been a necessity, on studying a book, to imagine the author of the book alive before him.He therefore obtained a picture of him and strove to learn enough of the course of his life to be able to judge the course of his development. The author assumes a like necessity with many of his readers; he has therefore, in this first volume, included his picture1 and in the following offers the reader a brief survey of the course of his development.