sequence of instructions—that is, an algorithm” (Misa, below), the invention of the software loop and the nested loop (now called recursion, a process fundamental to contemporary artificial intelligence), while Note A suggested that machine…sequence of instructions—that is, an algorithm” (Misa, below), the invention of the software loop and the nested loop (now called recursion, a process fundamental to contemporary artificial intelligence), while Note A suggested that machine…7 Bonner, Anthony, ed. and tr. Selected Works of Ramon Llull (1232-1316). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.
8 Coudert, Allison P. Leibniz and the Kabbalah, in Leibniz, Mysticism, and Religion. Coudert, Allison P. , Popkin,…
Thomas J. Misa
historian · 3 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
Misa appears to be a historian of technology who traces the conceptual origins of algorithms and recursion back through figures like Ada Lovelace and the Analytical Engine, establishing how the fundamental operations of contemporary AI were theorized in nineteenth-century computational machinery. The course readings cite Misa to ground the genealogy of software loops and nested recursion as historical innovations rather than recent discoveries, situating modern machine learning within a longer intellectual arc. This genealogical move matters for the seminar's argument that AI systems are not novel entities but rather the materialization of algorithmic thinking that has deep historical roots in mathematical and mechanical philosophy.
Mentioned in 1 reading
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