Repositioning Structural Computing

Abstract

Structural computing was first proposed within computer science as a largely technological solution to a set of system design and implementation issues. However, we believe that structural computing as proposed is actually only one expression of a more general philosophical view that stresses the importance of structure in human problem solving and communication. Seen from this perspective, we can identify a host of related schools of thought from such seemingly distant fields as anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and critical theory, the most pronounced of which is the structuralist movement. We examine this connection and posit that instead of the traditional connection made between hypermedia and traditional deconstructionist postmodernism, hypermedia (and its generalization, structural computing) are in fact more closely related to a “neo-structuralist” philosophical viewpoint.