Programming Matters

ProgrammingMatters

"I have searched for logic and reason through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back, and found that it is only in the context of love, that either logic or reason matter." -- JohnNash?, A Beautiful Mind

I posit to you that programming matters, like Nash said, only because it enhances the lives of others. Bad programming, or programming with evil intent (like hacking to steal or cause harm) matters because it causes harm to the lives of others. -- BrucePennington

Ah, but if there were no no evil-doers, a lot of security folk would be out of a job! And if all causes of harm were eliminated, what would be the point of achieving anything?

LOL! Well, we would certainly have to help the security people find new jobs, but like the IRS, I wouldn't mind seeing those jobs go away! It would seem to me, though, that "the point of achieving" would still be the same, wouldn't it? The real things we achieve enhance the lives of others, they enrich their lives. That would still be valuable even if there were no evil deeds occurring. -- BrucePennington

So is a state of maximum enrichment for all ultimately achievable or a logical impossibility, with Utopian life consisting merely of endless exploration of the enrichment space?

"maximum enrichment" - In my brief, modest study of politics (Dem's vs Replcn's; Socialism/Communism vs Free Interprise/Democracy), I think it is the honest goal of honest people (disregarding power-mongers, etc) to maximize enrichment of their fellow man. All of these systems are beautiful concepts, by themselves, and many people promote one or the other in an effort to make life better for all involved. But, in this life, "maximum enrichment" does not seem possible. It is ironic, that people matter in a very deep way, yet people are the biggest hurdle in any effort at enriching each others' lives. Yes, Utopian life is the goal, but our attempts at it seem flawed. Our track record is dismal at reaching it - in this "world" or existence. Like all things, though, try we must! Right? -- BrucePennington

But in this life, there will always be the possibility of harm, so we're really discussing the afterlife, right? Is there no more to that than mutual enrichment?

Some really probing questions here. The issue I am trying to probe, is that people matter. If people matter, then everything we do in this life matters, because it affects people. Clearly some of the things we do will cause harm, but that doesn't lessen the importance of our personal striving for excellence in the things we do. Whether we sing a song, or write software, we should do our very best at it because the ultimate outcome is to enrich the lives of others with it. Concerning "afterlife," as I understand it, it is where we will reach the ultimate fulfillment of enrichment (or just the oposite, depending upon your choices in this life. But that is an issue more easily discussed on this same page at the Adjunct SisterSite!) -- BrucePennington

Trying to bring back programming into matter, I have to state the following, what has relevance to PPP: Its not enough to show the theoretical existence of some utopia where all humans are maximally enrichmened (read: some BigDesignUpFront, that solves all your problems - theoretically), but you also have to show, that there is a way there and that it is goable (i.e. every step on this way must lead you a bit closer: e.g. ContinuousIntegration). An utopia, that is on an abolute maximum in the human existence space, but which is surrounded by deeeeep minimums will not help you much. And also it has the danger of being instable given sufficient external perturbations. -- GunnarZarncke

Yes Gunnar! It seems one of the greatest "perturbation" causes is Manking himself! I have found that a utopia is "goable", like you say, and there "is a way there." Deviating from this path leads to all kinds of "deeeep minimums" that do not "help much." You can read more of my findings on my BrucePennington homepage or visit http://www.lbministry.org/id24.htm for a more in-depth discussion of my search for this path. But, the search and my findings have led me to this discussion, because it (my findings) makes it clear that people matter. You matter, I matter, all lives are extremely important. -- BrucePennington

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