[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Millions Are Driven to Attack Their Computers
>
> One psychologist thinks that people feel increasingly under the control of
> their computer, whether it is because of the machine breaking down or a
> deluge of 'you have mail' signs. Some call it "desk rage."
>
> http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,504541,00.html
This story is very good.
I do not think, however, that it gets to all the root causes.
I would encourage everyone to read Joseph Weizenbaum's
_Computer Power and Human Understanding: From
judgment to calculation_, W.H. Freeman, 1976
Don't let the book's age trick you into thinking that it's
not way ahead of most of the cr-p being written "today".
Another good book is Arnold Gehlen's _Man in the Age of
Technology_ (Columbia Univ Press, date??).
--
I think the real problem with computers is that they "rub our
faces in it". Computers are supposedly pure logical systems.
They should be something that would drive Plato and Pythagoras to
ecstasy.
But no. They produce all sorts of sublunary problems
that are maddeningly difficult to solve, but when
you solve them, you generally don't learn anything
("Oh! That's the dumb thing I did...."), and the problem
usually is not *worth* solving anyway.
Computers are like disobedient human slaves "raised to the
5th power* or so. HOW DARE THEY!
And that's I think the real problem with computers. That
they promise Platonic truth but give us noxious lower
life forms ("bugs").
Computers should be *transparently understandable* but they are
refractorily opaque. Medusa? The Joker?
--
How much of this is due to our so-called society's
obsession with making everything as cheap as possible?
How much of it would be intrinsic to computers
even if programmers all had the humanistic education
and freedom from needing to earn a paycheck of
persons like Plato and Montaigne?
I've done "programming" for almost 30 years
"to earn a living". I've seen a couple good things
to come from computers in that time, particularly
SGML and APL.
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sgmlnote.html
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/APL.html
And, of course, word processing as a general idea (having
a secretary without having to be able to afford a
human one...) is also important.
3 or 4 good ideas in 40 years and hundreds of billions of
dollars (i.e., hours of labor time) invested in it. The
best ROI?
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
