Foundations of Computational Interaction
An interdisciplinary research program for formally describing, measuring, modeling, and predicting human-computer interaction.
Investigates whether interaction itself can serve as a primary object of scientific explanation rather than merely a property of humans, machines, or interfaces alone.
Theoretical Substrate
Foundations of Computational Interaction (FCI) integrates eighteen natural, social, formal, engineering, and interdisciplinary fields to evaluate whether computational interaction can be grounded as a coherent scientific discipline.
The corpus establishes a minimum ontology, boundary conditions, measurement contracts, and prediction horizons, distinguishing target from representation, semantic structure from interpretation, and interaction from behavior.
The synthesis concludes that interaction constitutes a legitimate primary explanandum with formal models and empirical contracts, operating as a rigorous interdisciplinary research program.
Primary Research Questions
- Can interaction serve as a primary object of scientific explanation without reduction to psychology, engineering, or computing alone?
- What formal models (LTS, Petri nets, process calculi, Markov models) are capable of representing interaction without arbitrary state distortion?
- How do we distinguish latent behavioral organization (strategy) from observable physical transitions?
- What are the necessary boundary conditions and loss functions for computational interaction to become predictively tractable?
Primary Claims & Invariants
Minimum interaction ontology separating target, representation, semantics, and behavioral execution.
16 integrated foundational research papers analyzing scientific explananda across 18 disciplines.
Gate-and-profile comparative evaluation architecture rejecting universal scalar usability metrics.
Master verified bibliography of 130+ audited primary sources in interaction science.
Deterministic C11 reference substrate evaluating ontology transitions.
Papers & Working Manuscripts
Interaction as a Scientific Explanandum
Evaluates whether interaction can stand as an independent scientific explanandum without reduction to computer science, psychology, or engineering. Establishes the initial discipline criteria and minimum boundary definitions.
Can Interaction Become a Primary Scientific Object?
Asks whether interaction itself can serve as a primary object of scientific explanation rather than merely a property of humans, machines, communication, cognition, or environments. Compares twelve scientific disciplines and formal traditions.
How Sciences Define Their Objects: A Comparative Analysis
Analyzes eighteen natural, social, formal, engineering, and interdisciplinary fields to examine how mature sciences construct primary objects, natural kinds, mechanisms, and levels of explanation.
Representation, Invariance, and Projection
Representation is not one homogeneous relation. Examines semiotics, logic, visualization, compilers, and databases to establish a typed projection model where transformations preserve declared invariants.
Ontology, Semantics, Representation, and Interpretation
Cross-disciplinary analysis showing that ontology, semantics, representation, and behavior cannot be treated as a simple hierarchy. Distinguishes formal semantic structures from situated interpretations.
Opportunity, Affordance, and Action Availability
Disentangles action availability across ecological psychology, HCI, reinforcement learning, control, and formal methods. Distinguishes enabled actions, authorized transitions, perceived opportunities, and recovery paths.
Interaction: Toward a General Theory of Interaction
Tests whether interaction is primitive or reducible to established constructs (cybernetic feedback, communication, synchronized state transition). Derives a formal coupling model over dual state spaces.
Behavior: Toward a Scientific Theory of Computational Behavior
Formulates a scientific representation of computational behavior independent of specific user interface technologies, bridging psychology, reinforcement learning, and formal process models.
Measurement: Toward a Scientific Framework for Interaction Research
Establishes measurement contracts separating physical trace events, task outcomes, and inferred latent psychological constructs (workload, confidence, discoverability).
Interaction Similarity: Toward a General Theory of Comparable Interactions
Formalizes interaction equivalence and similarity across trace equivalence, simulation, bisimulation, and feature-weighted geometric distance, proving where simple distance metrics fail.
Interaction Transfer: Toward a Theory of Experience and Adaptation
Distinguishes interaction transfer from simple repetition, familiarity, or learning. Models how prior interaction experience influences performance, strategy, and adaptation under changed conditions.
Interaction Strategies: Toward a Theory of Behavioral Organization
Defines interaction strategies as latent, goal-directed organizational policies distinct from single actions, plans, or heuristics, providing inference rules without reifying intent.
Formal Models of Computational Interaction: Toward a Mathematical Foundation
Evaluates candidate formalisms (Petri nets, labeled transition systems, process algebras, Markov decision processes, category-theoretic wiring diagrams) against empirical interaction requirements.
Predicting Interaction: Toward a Predictive Theory of Computational Interaction
Establishes a predictive ontology distinguishing local empirical laws (Fitts, Hick-Hyman, GOMS) from typed distributional forecasts over horizon-bounded interaction trajectories.
Comparative Interaction: Toward a Scientific Method for Comparing Computational Interactions
Develops a gate-and-profile comparison methodology rejecting one-dimensional usability scores. Requires admissibility gates on target, population, observation model, and multi-criteria profiles.
Computational Interaction Science: Program Synthesis & Foundations
Synthesizes the 15 preceding studies into an integrated epistemological evaluation. Demonstrates that interaction constitutes a legitimate primary scientific object while identifying inherited mechanisms.
Software, Substrates & Datasets
FCI Knowledge System of Record
Complete research corpus with 16 foundational papers, ontology schemas, and citation maps.
C11 Reference Interaction Substrate
Deterministic C11 implementation of the core interaction ontology and transition checker.
Master Verified Interaction Bibliography
Audited bibliography of 130+ primary scientific literature sources across 18 disciplines in BibTeX, APA, and CSL JSON.