Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 38.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2026-06-03 04:25:37+00:00
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
Subject: Lissack's essay
The essay mentioned in Humanist 40.37 (what's wrong, see below)
may be found at
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IeTVr9Os1uH5mAfbMmZGyI9FdS5Ae9sS/view>.
WM
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Humanist] 40.37: what's wrong
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:51 -0000
From: Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org>
To: willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 37.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2026-06-01 18:52:47+00:00
From: Ken Friedman <ken.friedman.sheji@icloud.com>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.29: what's wrong
Dear Willard,
Yesterday, a colleague sent me an interesting essay by Michael Lissack
(Fundierung 2026, forthcoming). It doesn’t answer your question
directly, but it addresses some of the problems we face in nearly every
academic field and discipline today.
Warm wishes,
Ken
>
> 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).
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted
List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org
Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/
Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
