Software Needs Philosophers

[Matt Garrish]

"Mumia W." <mumia.w.18.spam+fbi.gov at earthlink.net> wrote in message 
news:nfecg.192$Sf2.171 at newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Xah Lee wrote:
>> Software Needs Philosophers
>>
>> by Steve Yegge, 2006-04-15.
>>
>> Software needs philosophers.
>>
>> [...]
>> ----
>> This post is archived at:
>> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/04/software-needs-philosophers.html
>>
>> and
>> http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/_p/software_phil.html
>>
>> This essay is reported with permission.
>>
>>    Xah
>>    xah at xahlee.org
>>  ? http://xahlee.org/
>>
>
> Remember that this was a blog post from Steve Yegge that Xah
> Lee got permission to repost.
>
> It was a little long, and I got bored in the middle, but I
> think I understand (a little) Steve's point. He thinks we need
> software philosophers to break programmers' religious-like
> devotion to their languages of choice. I don't agree with
> this.
>
> I'd say we need software philosophers to help us see where
> software is taking us so that we can avoid bad spots if
> necessary. After all, the computer might just be the cotton
> gin of our time. We might be virtually enslaved by
> our own information if we don't watch out.
>
> Philosophers have the ability to think long, to think big,
> and to think about the future, and to think about the
> consequences of actions in a rational manner. They would be
> able to warn us if we were about to do something stupid with
> our society.
>

Thank you for that laugh. I think you're the first person I've read in this 
century who advocates Plato's silly notion of the philosopher kings. If you 
want to talk philosophy, please jump foward past the Enlightment.

Matt