Edgar Graham Daylight

Short CV:

• Ph.D. in software engineering at IMEC, Leuven (2000–2006).
• Post-doc researcher at Virginia Tech (2006–2007).
• MS in logic and computation (cum laude), University of Amsterdam (2007–2009).
• Researcher in the history of software engineering (2010–2013) with positions at:
  • Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics, University of Amsterdam
  • Department of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology
• Guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (January 2014) and lecturer at Utrecht University (1 February 2014 – 31 August 2015).
• Consultant in safety engineering (1 September 2015 - 31 August 2017).
• Member of the HaPoC Council: 1 October 2017 - 28 October 2021.
• Researcher at Lille University: 1 April 2019 - 31 May 2022.
• Researcher at Siegen University: October 2017 - February 2023.
• Current positions: guest lecturer at KU Leuven in the history of computer science (since early 2017) and restroom cleaner (to further finance my research).

Relevant publications:

Books

• E.G. Daylight, Turing Tales, Lonely Scholar, December 2016.
• E. Berkers, E.G. Daylight, De Geest van de computer: Een geschiedenis van software in Nederland, Stichting Historie der Techniek – Uitgeverij Matrijs, October 2016.
• E.G. Daylight. The Dawn of Software Engineering: from Turing to Dijkstra, Lonely Scholar, April 2012.

Booklets

• M.A. Jackson, E.G. Daylight, Formalism and Intuition in Software Development, Lonely Scholar Conversations Series, August 2015.
• D.E. Knuth, E.G. Daylight, Algorithmic Barriers Falling: P=NP?, Lonely Scholar Conversations Series, November 2014.
• D.E. Knuth, E.G. Daylight, The Essential Knuth, Lonely Scholar Conversations Series, August 2013.
• E.G. Daylight. Pluralism in Software Engineering: Turing Award Winner Peter Naur Explains, Lonely Scholar Conversations Series, October 2011.

Articles in international reviewed journals (selection)  

• E.G. Daylight. Refining Mark Burgin's Case against the Church-Turing Thesis, Philosophies 2024, 9(4), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9040122
• E.G. Daylight. True Turing: A Bird's-Eye View, Minds and Machines, 19 June 2023, DOI 10.1007/s11023-023-09634-0.
• E.G. Daylight. Addressing the Question "What is a Program Text?" via Turing Scholarship, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 87-91, October-December 2021.
• E.G. Daylight. The Halting Problem and Security's Language Theoretic Approach: Praise and Criticism from a Technical Historian, Computability, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 141-158, 2021.
• L. De Mol, M. Bullynck, E.G. Daylight. Less is More in the Fifties: Encounters between Logical Minimalism and Computer Design during the 1950s. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 19-45, January-March, 2018. Draft version available here.
  
• E.G. Daylight. Towards a Historical Notion of 'Turing — the Father of Computer Science'. Special issue of the journal History and Philosophy of Logic, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 205-228, 2015. (Published online: 4 November 2015.) Paper also availabe from this site.
• E.G. Daylight. From Mathematical Logic to Programming-Language Semantics — a Discussion with Tony Hoare. Journal of Logic and Computation, Vol. 25, pp. 1091-1110, 2015.
• M. Bullynck, E.G. Daylight, L. De Mol. Why Did Computer Science Make a Hero out of Turing? Communications of the ACM, Vol. 58, No. 3, pp. 37-39, March 2015. Draft paper available here. Official version here.
• G. Alberts, E.G. Daylight. Universality versus Locality: the Amsterdam Style of ALGOL Implementation. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Issue 4, pp. 52-63, October-December, 2014.
• E.G. Daylight. A Turing Tale. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 57, No. 10, pp. 36-38, 2014.
• E.G. Daylight. Dijkstra's Rallying Cry for Generalization: the Advent of the Recursive Procedure, late 1950s — early 1960s. The Computer Journal, Vol. 54, No. 11, pp. 1756-1772, 2011. Paper available here.

Contributions at international conferences, published in proceedings or book chapters (selection)

• E.G. Daylight. Church's Reception of Turing's 1936 Paper: a Philosophical Angle. Extended abstract, HaPoC, Zurich, 2021.
• E.G. Daylight. The Finite vs. the Infinite in Computer Programming of the 1950s-1960s, Mathematics and computation: Historical and epistemological issues, Congress on Logic and Philosophy of Science, Gent, September 2013.
• E.G. Daylight. Turing's Influence on Programming, In: Turing-100, A. Voronkov (ed.) EPiC Series, Vol. 10, pp. 42-52, Easy Chair. Manchester, 2012.
• E.G. Daylight. A Compilation of Dutch Computing Styles, 1950s-1960s. Presented at: History and Philosophy of Programming (HAPOP), Birmingham, July 2012.
• E.G. Daylight, S. Nanz (eds). Panel discussions I & II, held at the Future of Software Engineering Symposium, 22-23 November 2010, ETH, Zurich, Lonely Scholar Conversations Series, November 2011.

Invited talks and unpublished contributions at international events (selection)

• Joint work with E. Schüttpelz. The Turing Machine as a Boundary Object: Sorting Out American Science and European Engineering, 11th British Wittgensteinian Society Conference: Wittgenstein and AI, London, 29-31 July 2022.
• Joint work with E. Schüttpelz. Computer Science: a Myth of Algorithmic Stability. Maastricht University, 18 May 2022.
• With E. Schüttpelz. The Turing Machine Stripped Bare By Her Admirers (Meme). Universität Lüneburg, 10 November 2021.
• Church's Reception of Turing's 1936 Paper: A Philosophical Angle. 6th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing, Zurich, 27-29 October 2021. Extended abstract available here.
• Addressing the question "What is a program text?" via Turing scholarship: 1930s and 1980s. PROGRAMme Workshop, Bertinoro, 14-18 September 2021.
• With F. Cardone. Unbounded Nondeterminism: an Introduction for the Philosopher of Computing. PROGRAMme Workshop, Lille, 6-7 June 2019.
• With L. De Mol. Halting Problems: A Historical Reading of a Paradigmatic Computer Science Problem.
  
  • Autumn workshop: formalisms at the interface with machines, languages and systems, Bertinoro, Italy, 16 October 2018.
  • ESHS conference, London, England, 15 September 2018.
• Towards a History of Model-Modellee Conflations in Computer Science. Launch Event "What is a (Computer) Program?", Lille, France, 8 February 2018.
• Strachey's Halting Problem. Prelaunch Event "What is a (Computer) Program?" - A Roundtable, Paris, France, 20 October 2017.
• Category Mistakes in Computer Science at Large: Strachey's Halting Problem. Fourth International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing, Brno, Czech Republic, 4 October 2017.
• Self-Driving Cars are the Zeppelins of the 21st Century: Towards Writing the Next Chapter in the History of Failed Technologies. World Humanities Conference, Liege, Belgium, 7 August 2017.
• The long road from proof of concept to real-world autonomous driving. Podcar City Conference, Antwerp, 20 September 2016.
• Category Mistakes in Computer Science. Siegen University Workshop: "Beyond ENIAC: Early Digital Platforms & Practices," 10-12 June 2016.
• Using History to Make Software More Tangible. HaPoC Special Session at the 15th Congress on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, Helsinki, 17 August 2015.
• Towards a Dutch Perspective on the Beginnings of Machine-Independent Programming. One-hour lecture for the seminar "Interactions between logic, computer science and linguistics: history and philosophy. Organized by Liesbeth De Mol, University de Lille 3, UMR 8163 Savoirs, textes, langage, 22 April 2015.
• From the Pluralistic Past to the Pluralistic Present in Programming. Monthly seminar on the Philosophy and History of Computing. Organized by Mael Pegny and Pierre Mounier-Kuhn in Paris, France, 15 January 2015.
• With D. Nofre. The Absent Machine: The Making of Computer Science, 1955-1970. One-hour lecture for the Descartes Centre History of Science colloquium, Utrecht University, 16 December 2014.
• The (non-)influence of Turing's abstract formal results on the development of computers & computer science. Two-hour lecture for the seminar `Foundations and Fundamental Concepts' at the Institute of Mathematics and Physics in Louvain-la-Neuve (Universite Catholique de Louvain), 3 February 2014.
• Edsger W. Dijkstra in the 1980s: proving theorems by programming an ideal, non-existing, machine. iCHSTM, Manchester, July 2013.
  
• Programming in the 1950s: from Loop Controlled Machines to Universal Turing Machines. Computability in Europe, Milan, July 2013.
  
• A Hard Look at George Dyson's book "Turing's Cathedral". Turing in Context II, Brussels, October 2012.

Varia (selection)

• An interview of E.G. Daylight by Dave Walden in autumn 2014.
• E.G. Daylight. Turing's 1936 Paper and the first Dutch Computers. Written for the ACM blog on 19 August 2013.
• E.G. Daylight. A short biography of Peter Naur, the 2005 Turing award winner. Written for the official ACM website on Turing award winners, May 2012. See http://amturing.acm.org/  
• E.G. Daylight. Turing's 1936 Paper and the Origins of Computer Programming — as experienced by E.W. Dijkstra. Presentation for the Summer School on "Oral History and Technological Memory: Challenges in Studying European Pasts," University of Turku, Finland, 14 August 2009.

Contact:  egdaylight AT dijkstrascry DOT com

The main incentive for this blog in my words:

Just as an extensive account of Einstein's ideas aids us in grasping the constituents of our universe, research of Alan Turing's and Edsger Dijkstra's numerous writings helps crystallize some of the most important ideas underlying our digital society.

Another incentive, in Mary Hesse's 1980 words:

Where logic and observation are insufficient to determine scientific conclusions, there historians may look to social explanations to fill the gaps.

Expressing my frustration about `self-driving cars' and automation projects in general:

A software engineer who attempts to automate to the skies is like a doctor who prescribes too much antibiotics to his patients. Less can be more, also in the grand field of computing. 

 — Edgar G. Daylight, January 2021