## Project outline: Ground-breaking rethinking of the user-computer relationship We aim to develop an ERC Synergy Grant project that will redefine the relation between the user and computer program, grounding it in a historically-anchored broad notion of literacy. Leveraging this foundational rethinking of computer literacy, we develop a new framework centered on the novel concept of Literate User Interface (LUI). The integration of historical and epistemological research methods into fields that are usually future-oriented is a basic methodological innovation of our proposal. It enables us to provide a realistic vision for the future which (i) is based on a deeper understanding of the current situation and the social and technical forces shaping it, (ii) makes it possible to uncover original conceptualizations and techniques from past movements which have been forgotten or which have been reshaped historically to become unrecognizable and (iii) provides an understanding of why visions on the future from the past failed to materialize. ## Research objective I: The concept of a Literate User Interface (LUI) We will (i) develop the concept of Literate User Interface (LUI) as a basic new approach for building systems that can be understood and controlled by their users, focusing on the level of the (socio-technical) system rather than on a particular programming language; (ii) implement concrete materializations of the concept showing its viability and (iii) use human-centric research methods to build systems that enable the user to steadily reconceptualize their relation to programs. ## Research objective II: New approach to computer education We use a transdisciplinary research method to establish a broad notion of computer literacy. We will (i) integrate historical perspective into education in order to provide accessible broad perspective, (ii) precisely characterize a broad notion of literacy, shifting from small-scale coding towards broad-scale understanding of systems and their consequences and (iii) develop specific educational materials based on systems that implement our notion of Literate User Interface to show that such broad notion can lead to a deep understanding of realistic complex computer systems. ## Transdisciplinary collaborative methodology The only feasible approach for realizing these objectives is through a transdisicplinary method bringing together four main areas of research: (i) computer science education, (ii) history and philosophy of computing, (iii) foundations of computer programming, and (iv) human-centric interface design. Our current proposal goes beyond narrow disciplinary approaches within history, philosophy, education and computer science. It brings those fields together and places them on equal footing to work on one and the same problem: how to solve the literacy crisis? Due to its transdisciplinary nature, a ground-breaking ERC Synergy Grant project proposal can only be developed in a close collaboration with academic and industry experts across multiple disciplines. The requested funding will make it possible to organize the necessary series of workshops and research meetings, leading to an ERC Synergy Grant proposal submitted in autumn 2025.