Digital Humanities Foundations

Digital Humanities and the Digital Realm

• Digital Humanities involves theoretical and methodological definitions that compare the foundations and differences between its components.
• A scientific approach to "DIGITAL" is necessary, examining the mathematical, computational, and physical foundations of machines.
• Digital Humanities should be viewed as a parallel reading, combining the technical bases of digital tools with their application in understanding problems via historical and sociological perspectives.
• The focus is deepening understanding of the mathematical bases, numbers, and figures that underpin digital endeavors.

Foundations of Digital Concepts

• Key theoretical and philosophical foundations of "digital" and the scientific disciplines that regulate data production and computation can be found in the first four chapters of a book.
• Understanding the core mechanisms of each language enables bidirectional correspondence necessary for co-design work in Digital Humanities.
• Symbolic codes, like numbers, colors, and letters, gain meaning from their context.

Computation and Computer Science

• Computer science is often associated with the first digital electronic computer.
• Computer science, however, can exist separately from digital electronic computers like Charles Babbage’s analytical engine.
• Babbage's analytical engine was an entirely mechanical calculator from the 19th century capable of performing the four basic arithmetic operations.
• Computation is the concept that links digital electronic computers and Babbage's engine.
• Computation refers to the execution of operations on numbers that yield numbers.
• Digital electronic computers use circuits that respond to electrical impulses following the rules of arithmetic.
• Alan Turing viewed a "computer" as a person who computes, and sought to automate computation through machines.
• The term "computer" shifted in meaning as machines became successful, leading to the discipline of "computer science."

Etymology of "Digital"

• This term comes from the modern English "digit," which refers to a sign used to express numbers, which in turn comes from the Latin "digitus," meaning finger.

Analogy vs. Digits

• Fingers offer an analogy for counting by sharing the characteristic of being present and distinct.
• Digits are signs with agreed-upon meanings, unrelated to what they represent.
• The numeral '3' signifies "three" by convention, unlike an analogy.
• Analogue systems rely on analogy, whereas digital systems rely on signs expressing quantities based on established agreements.

Digits and Communication

• The meaning of a digit relies on a shared understanding among users.
• Communication requires a common background or shared context.
• This shared understanding specifies the meaning of each sign allowing for successful transmission and communication.
• This aspect of shared understanding relates to the humanities within digital contexts.

Digital Representation

• Digital depictions of objects like cats, pipes, and watches are not the real things.
• The representation of text is still text, as it visualizes signs allowing images and texts to be grouped together.

Encoding and Decoding

• “Encoding,” or mapping entities onto numbers, is crucial for all digital activity.
• “Decoding” is mapping numbers back to the initial entities.
• Computers operate between encoding and decoding, working with numbers.
• Computers are used by encoding inputs, processing them, and then decoding the outputs.

Analog vs. Digital Systems

• Abaci are analog systems.
• Digital systems use encoding to map entities onto numbers requiring general agreement.
• Babbage's machine was an analog computer.
• Digital computers are now prevalent due to 20th-century discoveries that made them faster and smaller than analog versions.