Digital Reality: Knowledge as Set Construction (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781480863255)

At every juncture during the evolution of digital technology, computer architects intuitively or consciously incorporated truths about human functioning into their designs. So although computers operate digitally, they are intended to act like human beings. Software, in particular, is specifically written to accomplish humanlike tasks and to be understood in human terms. Yet unlike human life, computer operations can be analyzed in detail because we build machines that execute them and know the decisions that went into their construction.

Digital Reality: Knowledge as Set Construction is the final report of a thirty-year study of how computers are designed. Author and philosopher George Towner shares his research and uncovers these truths hidden in digital architectures, assembling them into a new explanation of human knowledge. In addition, he includes an analysis of computing architectures that provides insights into some of the great questions of traditional philosophy, because much of digital technology is now dedicated to creating new realities.

A new theory based on emerging digital realities can offer another way of understanding human knowledgehow it functions, how it is related to what it knows, and what its natural limitations may be. Unlike many theories, digital reality theory is not expressed in laws and formulas; it just explains how human knowledge works.