Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 29.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org




        Date: 2026-05-30 06:30:50+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.26: what's wrong

Jim Rovira asks why I think digital humanities is limited. I'd say,
because we are, as finite creatures, along with all that we do. Digital
humanities goes back to a finite-state machine, which in its application
to the artefacts we study runs into what Stevan Harnad called "The
symbol grounding problem" (1990)*, or what happens in "modeling the mind"
(Harnad 1990). Not only does this problem remain unsolved (Harnad 2010)**,
but it is the origin of all that's truly interesting in digital
humanities itself. So, I'd say, ironically, our field of study is
limited insofar as we fail to study the limits computing in the
humanities encounters whenever pressed to the limits of what the machine
can do at any one moment. By ignoring them, instead of taking them as
characteristics of a different intelligence than our own, we fog the
mind with chatter about the next release.

Comments?

WM
-----
*Stevan Harnad, "The symbol grounding problem". Physica D 42 (1990) 335-346.
**Stevan Harnad, "Symbol Grounding Problem: Turing-­‐Scale Solution Needed". 
IEEE AMD Newsletter 7(1).

On 28/05/2026 07:03, Humanist wrote:
>
>                Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 26.
>          Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                        Hosted by DH-Cologne
>                         www.dhhumanist.org
>                  Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
>          Date: 2026-05-27 23:10:17+00:00
>          From: James Rovira <jamesrovira@gmail.com>
>          Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.18: what's wrong
>
> I'm curious why you think there are intellectual limitations? Why do you
> think DH needs to be liberated?
>
> The mind is always free.
>
> Server space, physical space, faculty lines are never free.
>
> Jim R
>
>
>>> For digital humanities as a field of research, what is the most serious
>>> intellectual limitation? Is there one overriding problem holding everyone
>>> back--even if they don't realise what it is? Is there a fundamental
>>> impediment that if removed, circumvented or better understood would
>>> liberate research across the disciplines which computing engages
>>> with?


--
Willard McCarty, Professor em., King's College London;
Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, Sciences and Humanities
(tinyurl.com/Berghahn-IRASH); Humanist (dhhumanist.org);
Science in the Forest, Science in the Past
(www.cl.cam.ac.uk/events/sfsp/);
www.mccarty.org.uk


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