The Computer as a Scientific Instrument

电子数字计算机在几个科学领域带来了重大变化。以计算机为基础的建模和统计分析工具可自动收集、存储和分析数据。计算机模拟使科学家们能够将他们在自然界中观察不到的现象可视化。然而，这样的应用也对科学实践提出了问题：模拟和数据分析是因果模型的有效来源吗？相同过程的计算机模拟能取代或补充实验吗？计算已经改变了许多学科的科学实践，然而科学计算的历史还没有被写下来。作为迈向这一目标的第一步，研究人员将检查计算机在生物、物理和行为科学的不同领域中作为科学工具的使用情况。提出者将首先对1975年至1975年左右期间几个科学领域的一次和二次来源进行系统的书目搜索。然后，他们将进行历史研究，包括档案分析、现场访问和一系列精选的采访。尽管每个科学领域的材料研究方法不同，但他们的努力将因一个共同的目标和共同的研究问题而团结在一起，包括努力将计算机置于其机构、社会和智力背景中；了解计算机如何改变科学实践并被它们改变；以及分析计算机如何被用来促进某些机构、个人和方法的权威。

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.