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Programming is Art

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Re: Programming is Art

#61

Post by dmitrijbelikov »

OtherShrezzing wrote: post #48
dmitrijbelikov wrote: post #42

Art is a system. And programming is a system too. They are different systems. > If I learned PHP, I could build back-end applications. If I learned HTML and CSS, I could build websites. So, what have you been doing for the last 10 years and why i see only 2026 in your github?

I read your comment first, and thought it was a bit uncharitable to the author. But then looking through their social media presence. No sign of commentary before late 2025. Looking at the wayback machine, the site was first published in January 2026 with no blog. Then in Feb, the site was updated with a blog archive, including posts from 2025, before the site's blog functionality was active. The blog post ends: >I d…

This author made this post to counter his other point of view on "Why do developers write continuation code by hand?"

I've been suspicious of this for about a year now.

Re: Programming is Art

#62

Post by greenbit »

IanCal wrote: post #33
spankibalt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI can be just a tool. [...] But AI can also be much more than a tool, [...]. Contradictio . Going back to Seven... > AI can be just a tool. Nothing, ever, is just a tool.

A banana and duct tape can be just a snack and a tool for fixing a leak.

Or .. art.

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/art/featu...

Re: Programming is Art

#63

Post by [deleted] »

michaelteter wrote: post #34

Labels rarely fit well. We can't even agree on the definition of "art". I would prefer to say "fascination", because for some people, writing code is their fascination. Is it art if only they would label it so? Because I'm pretty sure that if a "code artist" showed their code to 10 other experienced developers, not only would some of the others not consider it art, but likely some of the others would consider it low…

[deleted]

Re: Programming is Art

#64

Post by xeyownt »

noduerme wrote: post #18
xeyownt wrote: post #11

Why are people mixing everything up? Since when code has a soul? AI can be just a tool. You use it the same way you use a keyboard, a computer, a pencil, etc. I'm pretty sure you can build art with it, much like using any tool. People are making art with ascii. You can do art with anything. But AI can also be much more than a tool, and why can't it have a soul? What's a soul anyway, except something that humans are m…

If you don't know what a soul is, and you think it's something people just make up, then you are missing out on the experience of being human and you have a bigger problem than not being able to understand what art is.

So whales do not have a soul? Only humans do have one? What about our ancestors? Did the homo erectus have a soul? What about big apes, did they?

I don't need "soul" concept to describe the human experience, and if you use it to describe technology, it only makes things more confusing. It only ends up as an attempt to state that some things are not "good" because they don't match your own vague concept of what is good or bad, without explaining why nor what this is.

Re: Programming is Art

#65

Post by exitb »

jan_m_savage wrote: post #57

It's still too early to say what will the outlook be like in the next ten years, wrt to AI, but one thing I am perfectly sure of is: AI will always produce 'errors' due to the fundamental fact that it's heuristics-based. Maybe fewer and fewer, but the mistakes will never be totally eliminated. This is why those wanting to learn how to write software shouldn't get discouraged that 'Oh, AI will replace human programmer…

There's a class of programming/configuration tasks where I specifically use AI because it makes less errors than I do.

Re: Programming is Art

#66

Post by CrimsonRain »

noduerme wrote: post #18
xeyownt wrote: post #11

Why are people mixing everything up? Since when code has a soul? AI can be just a tool. You use it the same way you use a keyboard, a computer, a pencil, etc. I'm pretty sure you can build art with it, much like using any tool. People are making art with ascii. You can do art with anything. But AI can also be much more than a tool, and why can't it have a soul? What's a soul anyway, except something that humans are m…

If you don't know what a soul is, and you think it's something people just make up, then you are missing out on the experience of being human and you have a bigger problem than not being able to understand what art is.

So you know what a soul is? Please enlighten

Re: Programming is Art

#67

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

red75prime wrote: post #35
noduerme wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't know what a soul is, and you think it's something people just make up, then you are missing out on the experience of being human and you have a bigger problem than not being able to understand what art is.

Is it this fuzzy blob of ineffable experiences, aesthetics, qualia, self-reference, dualism, spirituality and other things? I don't need to reject all this to notice that its fuzziness makes it impossible to operationalize.

It's supposed to be experienced, not 'operationalized.'

Re: Programming is Art

#68

Post by CrimsonRain »

jan_m_savage wrote: post #57

It's still too early to say what will the outlook be like in the next ten years, wrt to AI, but one thing I am perfectly sure of is: AI will always produce 'errors' due to the fundamental fact that it's heuristics-based. Maybe fewer and fewer, but the mistakes will never be totally eliminated. This is why those wanting to learn how to write software shouldn't get discouraged that 'Oh, AI will replace human programmer…

So humans never make errors?

The very same thing that allows humans to make errors, find errors, learn from it, fix it...AI can/will do too. Then what?

You lack imagination.

Re: Programming is Art

#69

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

greenbit wrote: post #62
IanCal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A banana and duct tape can be just a snack and a tool for fixing a leak.

Or .. art. https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/art/featu...

The banana isn't the art. The art is placing the banana in a gallery and art market context to make a funny and ironic comment about the gallery and art market context.

Programming is a craft. It's not an art, because creating code doesn't comment on, criticise, challenge, distill, or otherwise have anything to do with any human experience outside of programming.

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