The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
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The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
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Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#2Human programming is easy until you reach the async, concurrent and parallel parts. Then you have to catch lots of exceptions and log the call stack. :)
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#3Human programming is easy until you reach the async, concurrent and parallel parts. Then you have to catch lots of exceptions and log the call stack. :)
And the copy-pasting of errors into chatGPT can result in carpal-tunnel syndrome really quickly!
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#4I have to say I'm viscerally turned off by the language here. Perhaps even the idea, although there is obviously nothing objectionable about helping people reach their own goals, per se.
The problem here is that this whole angle on human life seems to have forgotten that efficiency, productivity, etc are all there to help us find more time to live in a world where those things don't matter. To have leisure. To think unstructured, non-goal directed thoughts. You don't need "programming" to be human.
The other thing here is that this stuff is just what humans in all societies and organizations have been working on forever. We have collective and personal goals and we have all sorts of systems to reach them. We do research on how effective they are already. We do A/B testing. Not sure what calling this collective activity "human programming" accomplishes.
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#5How about design the coffee maker so I don't need a program to use it?
We have a water dispenser at work which can dispense regular, chilled, carbonated and cooking water. It has a printed out laminated instruction sheet next to it, because it all works with a combination of twisting a ring left or right, pushing it up or down, and I believe there is a handle too. That's bad design.
This is the reverse of "automate anything that can be automated", this is bringing the humans back in a step by step process.
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#6 Educators, generals, dieticians,
psychologists, and parents program. Armies,
students, and some societies are programmed.Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#7How about design the coffee maker so I don't need a program to use it? We have a water dispenser at work which can dispense regular, chilled, carbonated and cooking water. It has a printed out laminated instruction sheet next to it, because it all works with a combination of twisting a ring left or right, pushing it up or down, and I believe there is a handle too. That's bad design. This is the reverse of "automate a…
> How about design the coffee maker so I don't need a program to use it?
The coffee machine is just an example, don't get hung up on it. If you think all possible coffee machines should be made so simple that they don't need instructions (1), then mentally replace it with a machine that you can accept will need instructions, like a 3D printer or a CNC lathe or whatever.
(1) a fallacy in itself because even if you are a genius who finds every well designed machine obvious to use, there are plenty of us who are not geniuses and require instructions even for the simplest of mechanisms.
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#8How about design the coffee maker so I don't need a program to use it? We have a water dispenser at work which can dispense regular, chilled, carbonated and cooking water. It has a printed out laminated instruction sheet next to it, because it all works with a combination of twisting a ring left or right, pushing it up or down, and I believe there is a handle too. That's bad design. This is the reverse of "automate a…
A coworking space I visit has a little (digital) foot pedal for their water fountain
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#9Educators, generals, dieticians, psychologists, and parents program. Armies, students, and some societies are programmed. by Alan J Perlis, the first Turing Award recipient.
Re: The untapped potential of human programming (2022)
#10untapped? ahahahhaah
it's not untapped. it's just slightly more effective if I don't tell you I'm trying to program you.
in any case, in terms of "ultimate principles" all meaningful information is in the end an expression of some form of control;
more precisely, we can only observe (as a 3rd "objective" party) the results of meaningful exchanges between interacting entities by noticing (measuring) changing behaviors whenever "meaning" gets transferred from one to another entity; i.e. I'm pointing out that (similarly to electricity/magnetism) we can never observe "meaning" directly, but can measure its effects on beings interacting with the "fields of meaning" ahahhaha.