Abstract
We argue that the essence of thirdness in computing is self-reference. Our discussion is grounded on the theories of Church and Curry, which have been studied in the domain of theoretical computing. Using their theories, we show that any program can be transformed into a program consisting only of three-term relations, where the essence of the three-term relations lies in self-reference.
About the authors
Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii (b. 1969) is Associate Professor in the Department of Creative Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests are computational semiotics, computational linguistics, and natural language processing. Her major publications include ‘Three RoboCup simulation league commentator systems’ (with E. Andre, K. Binstead et al., 2000); ‘Progress through performance competitions? A large-scale comparative study of multi-agent teams’ (with G. Kaminka, I. Frank, and K. Arai, 2001); and ‘Predictive text entry techniques using adaptive language models’ (in press).
Yuichiro Ishii (b. 1967) is a lawyer and Lecturer at Nihon University. His research interests are programming languages, game programming, and software related legal issues. His publications include Textbook on Control Mechanics (published in Japanese, 1996).
© Walter de Gruyter
