I've always wondered why UFOs are only a USA phenomenon. Why doesn't China have these extraterrestrial biological remains? What about Russia? North Korea? Japan? Because it's a form of mass-hysteria. Just like the flat Earth crowd, they will continue to shovel the narrative and ignore scientific evidence.
Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
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Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#22What I believe makes the distinction between engineer and non-engineer in the software world so difficult to pin down is that software is so powerful that most non-engineers can end up easily doing engineer-level work. For example, a mechanical engineer is someone that designs mechanical systems. In order to do that, they will need specialized and very expensive equipment, and the end result will be produced with mac…
"For example, a mechanical engineer is someone that designs mechanical systems. In order to do that, they will need specialized and very expensive equipment, and the end result will be produced with machines costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars." Not really. The difficulty to manufacture something isn't tied to the ability to engineer it. In fact, good engineers try to make the item easier/cheape…
Was the AK-47 first built and designed with stuff a normal mechanic would have had access to at the time? And to test it? And produce it at scale? That's engineering work.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#23Software development isn’t engineering and it has never been. Software developers aren’t engineers.
I don’t know why this keeps coming up, maybe slow news day. It’s okay to be passionate about a craft or a job and for that job to be very technical and demanding. Many people feel that way about what they do, and they are perfectly okay not being engineers.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#24This is closely related to why Sussman and Abelson stopped teaching SICP: it is not possible to engineer software any more because systems are too complicated to completely understand and abstractions hide too many behaviors. So now we do "programming by poking" to understand what the system does instead of making it correct by construction. http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5335 We just tinker. That's all we can d…
Helps to have more of the quote:
He said that programming today is “More like science. You grab this piece of library and you poke at it. You write programs that poke it and see what it does. And you say, ‘Can I tweak it to do the thing I want?'”. The “analysis-by-synthesis” view of SICP — where you build a larger system out of smaller, simple parts — became irrelevant.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#25This is closely related to why Sussman and Abelson stopped teaching SICP: it is not possible to engineer software any more because systems are too complicated to completely understand and abstractions hide too many behaviors. So now we do "programming by poking" to understand what the system does instead of making it correct by construction. http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5335 We just tinker. That's all we can d…
Which means software is trapped behind the evolutionary lens. And without a direct connection between goal and method, it's like an out of control path to extinction.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#26It's craft. But what about the math, you say. All kinds of craft demand understanding of the related math.
DEULSION.
For example sewing and archery doesn't need math as must have. Same with arabic calligraphy or painting.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#27This again? In general, Software Engineering is not engineering. It's not a technical issue, it's a 'software doesn't really kill people so government doesn't intervene in it'. In the case where the software is life and death it's generally developed in ways similar to 'real' engineering Fundamentally folks built building/structures without engineering, just so consistently caused death and destruction that govt step…
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Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#28Real engineers can face personal liability and even jail time for negligence.
How much of modern software practices would exist today if the senior engineer needed to sign off on a project?
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#29This is as much about UFOlogy as it's about SE. But there's also Science in Ufology, for example statistical analysis of reported UFO sightings or video analysis of UFO Videos. I think this applies to software engineering as well.
Here's an example I found enlightening: It's about the HTTP3& the QUIC protocol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rYPXgCKamM So much real engineering went into that, from fossilized infrastructure that doesn't allow certain ipv6 extension headers, to assumptions about the great firewall of china and it's inner workings and more.
Re: Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
#30I've always wondered why UFOs are only a USA phenomenon. Why doesn't China have these extraterrestrial biological remains? What about Russia? North Korea? Japan? Because it's a form of mass-hysteria. Just like the flat Earth crowd, they will continue to shovel the narrative and ignore scientific evidence.
If you ever want to see how they think, just check out the myriad UFO subreddits. It's pretty wild.
Everything is aliens and a government cover up to those folks....even when you prove it's a floating trash bag they think you're a fool. There are a few rational commenters, but a lot of people that want to believe so bad they fall for all these grifters selling pseudoscience books and seminars.