A Computational Turn? Reflections on Digital and Computational History of Science, Knowledge and Technology

Area of Science:

• History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
• Digital Humanities
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• Digital and computational methods are increasingly prevalent in scholarly research and daily life.
• The integration of these methods into the history of science, knowledge, and technology warrants examination.
• Existing approaches may inadvertently perpetuate biases present in datasets and algorithms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the current state and future potential of a distinct field in digital and computational history of science, knowledge, and technology.
• To advocate for conceptual clarity and methodological diversity within this emerging area.
• To address the need for more global and inclusive historical narratives.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of the current landscape of digital and computational approaches in history of science.
• Epilogue to a special issue focusing on computational methods in the history of alchemy and chemistry.
• Argumentative synthesis of disciplinary positioning and future research directions.

Main Results:

• The overarching field of digital and computational history of science, knowledge, and technology has not yet fully materialized.
• Current digital and computational approaches require greater conceptual clarity regarding their disciplinary role.
• There is a risk of reproducing existing biases if datasets and algorithms are not critically examined.

Conclusions:

• A commitment to diversity in subjects, cultures, languages, periods, and knowledge forms is crucial.
• Developing datasets for under-resourced areas is an important future task.
• A plurality of methods is essential for a computational history of science that reflects true diversity.