Computing as the evolution of writing

22.V.1430

computing, or programming are to humankind more like writing2.0.

writing , in implication, was not merely the aquired ability to record data.

It was also very much a programming tool - which with an individual's will
was exercised and accomplished - think contracts, court orders, decrees, wills,
and so on.

The transformative effect writing had on society was thus much more than the
more widespread communication of information. It included creating new social
spaces, and tools for action. Crucially it is through writing that mathematics
and exact engineering and technology were able to arise.

The ability to distribute and store information through was one of the secondary
applications or byproducts (lesser effects) of writing despite being at the root
of the motivation to write.

If the appearance of programming (or equivalently computing) in society at large in the past 60 years is an analogue to the effect of the invention of writing, then despite all the applications
seen so far - at the risk of aping Sir Papa WWW - we are still at the beginning of the computer era in terms of its profound
effect on society.

One of the things that initially stands out about computing is how it insinuated itself into every human activity. Despite being a product of electrical engineering and formal logic*, ie despite being an invention "like any other" it was as indispensible to human activity as others like planning and administration.

writing also became a necessity in every serious activity - from religion to trade everything required record keeping, planning, communication writs.

computing provided - well - computation. But it also xtended the record keeping. it automated record keeping and reduced most human activities to computations made on vast records of data.

Indeed, technically the computer was never more than that. A tool for data processing. like writing.

Both are intimately connected to our cognition and thought processes. We often cannot think without them. (here writing can be expanded to its larger sense which includes graphing or drawing as well - as a representational tool & faculty - an extension of the imagination).

Thus computing - or specifically computer programming - is the evolutionary step following writing.

Where writing has led to the ability to program and maintain civic institutions - from theology to accounting , computing gives the ability to program and automate intellectual activity and systems of knowledge.

*for a picture of the fields that fathered computer science , see http://augmented5th.dyndns.org/doku/doku.php?id=computation.