27 - 29 October 2021, 6th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC 2021), Virtual & Zürich (Switzerland)

The growing cultural import of computing practices has become ever more pressing in our days in all dimensions of social life. The global and collective nature of the challenges our epoch is facing (e.g. climate change, global pandemics, systemic inequalities, resurgence of totalitarianism, to name a few) requires a comprehensive perspective on computing, where social and cultural aspects occupy a central position. For these reasons, thinking about machines asks today for an interdisciplinary approach, where art is as necessary as engineering, anthropological insights as important as psychological models, and the critical perspectives of history and philosophy as decisive as the axioms and theorems of theoretical computer science.

For more than a decade, the 'History and Philosophy of Computing' Conference (HaPoC) has contributed to building such an interdisciplinary community and environment. We aim to bring together historians, philosophers, computer scientists, social scientists, designers, manufacturers, practitioners, artists, logicians, mathematicians, each with their own experience and expertise, to take part in the collective construction of a comprehensive image of computing.