pete wrote:
[snip]
It seems to me that most real productivity stuff could be done
adequately well on the computers of the mid eighties. By that time,
the machines could already do most computing tasks so fast that
most time was spent idling while the mere human crawled along
typing in responses. What has driven further developments? Not
the only "real-world" tasks that require more power: computer
animated graphics generation, for entertainment or simulation
presentations; massive number crunching tasks in hard science,
or engineering; probably a couple I've forgotten. None of these
projects have the market to drive the need for better faster
cheaper, and in any case, they have the capital to spend on
small run specialized machines if necessary. No, the market
that drives the computer industry, that sells the bleeding
edge systems (who do you know who's bought the most insanely
fast graphics card, and near liquid-cooling demanding motherboard?)
is _gamers_.
[snip]
I find this really pathetic. Beyond Walter Ong's question about
the purpose of a person acquiring a skill when they have
nothing of value to do with it, I'd even rather these people
*wrote* computer programs instead of just consuming
the algorithmic spaces others have programmed. Like I'd
rather people *played* football than watched it on TV (even
though I think football is barbaric).
I doubt anybody thinks about the potential of teaching
children (and older persons) to write not just in
a word processing program (WYSIWYG...) but in SGML, i.e.,
to dialectically define the content of their writing
in terms of defining its form in a creative text-structuring
formalism (I doubt this is what Chomsky means by
"generative grammar", but it should be).
The way is everything;
the end is nothing.
(--Willa Cather)
\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]
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