> Ordinary people in 2020's use computers because a computer is the
> God, not because the man wants to run some program on it.
Good point. Is something a tool still if the user has no choice but to
use it?
Certainly it is no longer "an extension of the mind-body and will" as
some philosophers define "tool".
Is it a crutch? And does that imply that we have become "disabled" or
are now "differently abled but dependent"?
I think the GP's appeal to simple dignity of labour and clear purpose
troubles me for other reasons though.
All tools shape their users, and none more-so than a computer. So much
indeed that I think it deserves a different status. It's a different
quality of tool than a hammer. Today, it very much uses you in equal
measure to you using it.
Calling computers (mere) tools seems a little dismissive.
And in that regard I think the GP shows a typical nonchalance around
what they _think_ is their (very mysterious and serious) "doings".
When a system already defines all the possibilities for what you can
make and do, and these days it even curates, censors, "corrects" and
extrapolates for you... what is left of that glorious will to action
(doing)?
Has it been magnified such that it's "AIA" = AI aligns with IA
(artificial intelligence is aligned with intelligence amplifications)
and the tool is a lever (bicycle) for the mind?
Or are we cranking the handle on a auto-cookie-cutter machine that
gives a choice of three shapes? That can feel a lot like "doing" stuff
too.
The closer one is to that kind of "doing on rails" the more vulnerable
to being replaced by a robot/algorithm.
OTOH, remembering how to see computers as engines of possibility
rather than certainty again (as Ada Lovelace did), seems to me more
where humans fit with computers. YMMV
Yeah sorry I didn't mean to be rude other than to josh you about
mysterious "doings".
You made it sound like they were somehow special, like, I dunno,
particle physics that could only run on a custom quantum computer.
Now you're specific, looks like those are all perfectly normal and
ordinary things, right?
I also had to use a very specialist CAD system. In those days the only
things it would run on were Sun Microsystems and HP Unix boxen.
Other than Microsoft's monopoly grip, and your need to interface with
other use ^H^H^Hvictims of that monopoly, is there any reason you
wouldn't try a friendlier, more socially conscious solution?
I mean, I would first point out Linux and FOSS aren't a "friendlier" solution.
Daring to ask about a problem will inevitably devolve into "You're committing heresy." and getting taken for a ride about changing my entire process and environment when that was never my inquiry nor even desirable.
As for socially conscious: Paying for good, practical software that serves my needs is a good thing. Both for myself and the developers, a win-win.
FOSS has a social contract problem. There are many open source developers who need/want money for their labor who get shut down and even coerced into free-as-in-beer for daring to ask for compensation, and many more project derelicts strewing the land abandoned due to lack of resources.
Good point. Is something a tool still if the user has no choice but to use it?
Certainly it is no longer "an extension of the mind-body and will" as some philosophers define "tool".
Is it a crutch? And does that imply that we have become "disabled" or are now "differently abled but dependent"?
I think the GP's appeal to simple dignity of labour and clear purpose troubles me for other reasons though.
All tools shape their users, and none more-so than a computer. So much indeed that I think it deserves a different status. It's a different quality of tool than a hammer. Today, it very much uses you in equal measure to you using it.
Calling computers (mere) tools seems a little dismissive.
And in that regard I think the GP shows a typical nonchalance around what they _think_ is their (very mysterious and serious) "doings".
When a system already defines all the possibilities for what you can make and do, and these days it even curates, censors, "corrects" and extrapolates for you... what is left of that glorious will to action (doing)?
Has it been magnified such that it's "AIA" = AI aligns with IA (artificial intelligence is aligned with intelligence amplifications) and the tool is a lever (bicycle) for the mind?
Or are we cranking the handle on a auto-cookie-cutter machine that gives a choice of three shapes? That can feel a lot like "doing" stuff too.
The closer one is to that kind of "doing on rails" the more vulnerable to being replaced by a robot/algorithm.
OTOH, remembering how to see computers as engines of possibility rather than certainty again (as Ada Lovelace did), seems to me more where humans fit with computers. YMMV