What is Software Anyways? Where Does it Exist?

submited by

Style Pass

2024-12-03 06:00:04

For this next paper, we are looking at a question I'm sure many will think is pointless. What exactly is software? But by this, we mean something a bit different than offering a definition. The goal here isn't to figure out how to split the world into software things and non-software things. Nor is it to distinguish hardware from software. Instead, the question is, assuming we have software, what sort of thing is it? This may feel like a weird question. But why? I think it's not a very fashionable question. After all, what kinds of things are there? Are there ghosts and spirits and other spooky substances? Of course not! What could there be other than things made of atoms?

Nurbay Irmak gives us what I think is a rather interesting view. The aptly named "Software is an Abstract Artifact" tells precisely what software is. But if you aren't a philosophy nerd, that title might not be enlightening to you. My goal in this brief paper summary is to make these notions clear. I will not attempt to argue for Irmak's view but simply state it. To try and make clear what the paper presents. But you must be reminded, this is merely a summary.

Let's start with a particular example of software and consistently use it throughout. Irmak often uses Windows 7 so we will stick with that example. Windows 7 is software, I think we can all agree to that. But what is Windows 7? Let's say I have a disc that contains Windows 7. Is Windows 7 identical to that physical disk? If I incenerate that disk do I destroy Windows 7 and it no longer exists? I doubt many would think so. Is Windows 7 identical to the bytes on the disk? What if I store the bytes in a different order, or I compress the bytes? Does that mean I no longer have a copy of Windows 7 but some totally different piece of software? That seems unlikely.