The Computer as a Scientific Instrument

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The electronic digital computer has brought about significant changes in several fields of science. Computer-based modelling and statistical analysis tools have automated data collection, storage and analysis. Computer simulations have allowed scientists to visualize phenomena they could not observe in nature. Yet such applications also raised questions for the practice of science: Are simulation and data analysis valid sources for causal models? Can experiments be replaced or supplemented by computer simulations of the same processes? Computing has transformed the practice of science in many disciplines, yet no history of scientific computing has yet been written. As a first step toward this goal, the investigators will examine the use of computers as scientific instruments in diverse fields of biological, physical, and behavioral science. The proposers will begin with a systematic bibliographic search of primary and secondary sources for several fields of science for the period from 1975 through about 1975. Then they will undertake historical research, including archival analysis, on-site visits, and a selected set of interviews. Although the approaches to material in each field of science will vary from one investigator to another, their efforts will be united by a common goal and common research questions, including efforts to situate the computer within its institutional, social, and intellectual context; to understand how the computer changed scientific practices and was changed by them; and to analyze how computers were used to promote the authority of certain institutions, individuals, and methods.