Burn the Programmer • Hacker News Board

Re: Burn the Programmer

#211

Post by loup-vaillant » Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 11:42 PM UTC

mLuby wrote: post #27

adrianN wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality also explores that topic a bit.

Better to read the review/summary as HPatMoR is extremely long and really more of an Ender's Game fanfic than an exploration of magic by rational means. (It does happen briefly but is quickly forgotten.) http://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/#bad-plotting >At the start of the story he has a legitimate positive agenda--he wants to use science to uncover the secrets of magic. As the story develops, however, he completely lo…

I gather you didn't like HPMoR, like the author of the review? Here's my advice: do not read that review, even the introduction is full of spoilers.

I personally loved HPMoR, even more so than the original series. I also disagree with most of the review, either factually (I believe most of the science is sound), or because I have a different interpretation (how Harry lacking agency is even a problem?).

Re: Burn the Programmer

#212

Post by ronald_raygun » Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 11:47 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #194

japhyr wrote: post #174

I teach high school math and science, and I fully recognize that most of my students will not end up in math and science-focused careers. So I think pretty carefully about my goals for these students. One clear purpose in everything I ask students to do: take away the sense of "magic" in technological things. I just finished teaching a math class, where the final project was a 3d modeling exercise. Students didn't al…

Someone whose name I no longer remember was a teacher of mine in highschool. Even though I knew how to program and had a nights / summers / weekends job programming I treated the CPU / motherboard as "magic". As if there was this dividing wall between the pure mathematical construct of a software program and the physicality of the bits moving through the motherboard. The teacher taught us how to use NPN and PNP trans…

I had a very similar experience when I took a processor design class in college. At first in the class we started learning the binary codes for each instruction, which bits were the registers, instruction bits etc. It seemed so pointless at the time. When we finally got to the end and it clicked that those bits were physically turning on and off gates, it blew my mind.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#213

Post by kkotak » Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 11:48 PM UTC

If anyone's burning the programmers is the AI, Block chain programmers. Very soon, the industry will need/have a very small fraction of programmers than what we have today.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#214

Post by endgame » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 12:24 AM UTC

jrs95 wrote: post #180

So if programmers are wizards, who is our Voldemort that wants us to rule the world? ;)

He who controls the book of faces.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#215

Post by AndrewDucker » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 12:40 AM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #184

(Fun fact: horror games are more intense in VR, by some margin. So terrifying, in fact, that I added a "Low Terror Mode" recently, after reading a significant number of people saying "I'd love to play your game, but I absolutely won't, because it sounds way too scary.") While I would love to play the full terror mode, the low terror mode made me think of a game that replaced the undead horrors you summon with giant p…

I think it's Skyrim that has a mod to replace the giant spiders with bears...

Re: Burn the Programmer

#216

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 12:42 AM UTC

greenleafjacob wrote: post #176

te_chris wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think plumber is more apt: We take shit and send it places so people don't have to think about it.

A lot of programming work being done today is information plumbing. Creating pipes that move information from one place to another. Regulating and monitoring information flow rates. Unclogging pipes that are backed up.

The difference is that plumbing is tangible. You can touch the pipes and imagine what's inside them.

IT is intangible.

You can touch a server and a network cable, but their work is utterly mysterious and unintuitive compared to a domestic water pipe.

Which is why IT seems like magic, but plumbing, carpentry, and car maintenance don't.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#217

Post by moron4hire » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 12:51 AM UTC

randomstudent wrote: post #146

throwanem wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's far from rationalist fiction Is that bad? Like any didactic subtype of the genre, rationalist fiction often struggles to succeed in both of the goals set for it; the only example I've as yet found enjoyable - and extremely so! I strongly recommend it - is Unsong by Scott Alexander, also of Slate Star Codex.

Unsong is not exactly rational fiction. The author itself claims it isn't (some people claim it is despite this fact, though).

Authors aren't reliable narrators of their work.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#218

Post by flor1s » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 12:51 AM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #194

japhyr wrote: post #174

I teach high school math and science, and I fully recognize that most of my students will not end up in math and science-focused careers. So I think pretty carefully about my goals for these students. One clear purpose in everything I ask students to do: take away the sense of "magic" in technological things. I just finished teaching a math class, where the final project was a 3d modeling exercise. Students didn't al…

Someone whose name I no longer remember was a teacher of mine in highschool. Even though I knew how to program and had a nights / summers / weekends job programming I treated the CPU / motherboard as "magic". As if there was this dividing wall between the pure mathematical construct of a software program and the physicality of the bits moving through the motherboard. The teacher taught us how to use NPN and PNP trans…

I used to think the same way about the CPU, even after getting a masters in Computer Science! About a year ago I read the book Code by Charles Petzold and watched some lectures about Computer Science by Robert Sedgewick which really opened up my mind.

Re: Burn the Programmer

#219

Post by quickthrower2 » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 1:22 AM UTC

wonderbear wrote: post #45

Most of us would just be full of ourselves to call ourselves magicians or imagine that anyone else sees us that way. But there are people working towards creating things that no one will be able to control once they're out.

That horse has bolted

Re: Burn the Programmer

#220

Post by unhumanrights » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 1:37 AM UTC

japhyr wrote: post #174

I teach high school math and science, and I fully recognize that most of my students will not end up in math and science-focused careers. So I think pretty carefully about my goals for these students. One clear purpose in everything I ask students to do: take away the sense of "magic" in technological things. I just finished teaching a math class, where the final project was a 3d modeling exercise. Students didn't al…

> Most of them will never model anything again in their lives. But we've removed the idea that when they see an amazingly detailed 3d-printed prosthetic limb, that the designer was doing some kind of magic.

I don't believe in "magic", but I believe there is magic everywhere.

TIL I won a math award in grade 6 and almost failed grade 8. I remembered that the first time I took calculus I scored 39% and the second time I scored 93%.

I learnt a lot from school, but more on my own.

I'm terrible at math and programming, but better at it than most everyone I know. The only people I know who do it better do it professionally, but do it so narrowly they barely know anything at all.

I understand very little in detail, but quite a bit in principle.

I'm uneducated and probably unemployable, but make more than most people I know who are employed, in a field that's been made obsolete (while working less than they do).

I believe strongly in the dignity and simplicty of living that comes from reflection and self-awareness. And that empathy and understanding are the cornerstones of a just society.

I believe we should all know more and do less. That our experiments and play should be confined to safe spaces and have as few repercussions as possible. That the public acts we willingly make should be considered and measured.

I am hungry now, I will eat.