Digital artifacts as abstract objects :|an ontological comparison to musical works

Abstract

Digital objects such as computer programs, web-based programs, social media accounts etc. appear to change enormously. One position is that such changes are only results of some linguistic conventions rather than true changes. This position suggests that digital objects are mathematical entities. Our daily behaviors about digital objects suggest otherwise. We use several software artifacts which undergo changes through time, and we still believe that we use the same product. I argue that digital objects survive through some changes. My aim is to give an account of the nature of digital artifacts in a way that is consistent with our linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors concerning these objects. I focus on the identity conditions of digital artifacts, conditions under which the identity of a digital artifacts survives through change. This work is an attempt to explain the relations between digital artifacts in different situations regarding their identity conditions: 1) When the user preface, the function, and the algorithm of two programs are the same but they have different and independent creators, and they are historically and causally independent. 2) When two programs have different algorithms and different texts but they carry the exact same function, and they are created by the same programmer as the same digital object. 3) When a digital object has changes in its user prefaces, or in its algorithm due to updates, and thereby gains or loses some function or features.