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.
... Read more

hardware and free software

16.IV.1430

Until society figures out a way to manufacture, transport and give away goods from raw materials for free, we cannot have free hardware the way free software has evolved.

Along its supply chain, hardware costs

- raw materials -> components ,
- labor to assemble components and subcomponents and so on,
- long-distance transport from pt of origin to pts of sale,
- whatever else (overhead)

So it seems impossible that there would be free hardware - as happened with software.

Although if there existed an open source community - and there exists to an extent - for hardware similar to the software counterpart, there is still room where it would fit in the supply chain.
Mainly replacing waged labor to assemble the hardware parts.

But this does not eliminate costs. There are transport costs for the free workers / contributors / volunteers to get to the assembly points.

Also because assembly points are centralized, it severely restricts the possibility of a widespread population of free workers - like that which exists in free software space.

By contrast, software is all brains and bandwidth (and hardware, but to much lesser extent).

Thus, I hope that the added value of hardware created by the waged labor that designs and makes it does not enter into the price of hardware to the end user. It does enter into it. And this even though workers are not renumerated for their value-added labor.

But why should I pay for value-added labor on hardware (which is not returned to the laborers) while I get value-added labor in free software for free ?


... not oddly, all this eventually leads to the system of both guilds and the state cushioning the life of labor's value-added products, not in wages, but generalized social and economic services. The existence of the guilds prevents a completely centralized socialist welfare state - as responsibilities are shared between both.

What keeps the guilds on the straight and narrow wrt their responsibilities to their labor force? but what doesn't ?

Historically, it seems guilds have not betrayed workers - they were simply dismantled by state and finance and then later replaced by trade or labor unions (rather emotionally but euphemistically refered to as brotherhoods by Americans). But they are not remotely related to the structure and functioning of the extinct ancient trade or industry guilds.

In the modern age, both the trade unions and industry associations are locked in adversarial relationships and both are corrupt and completely compromised.

The ancient guilds functioned both as industry associations and as workers' entitlements.

The innovation is that in a moneyless society, the equilibria are built around mutual exchange of value. That is the exchange of value-added production in return for the provision of the requisites of some accepted standard of living - removing the man in the middle, money.



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Stop improving nature

07.iI.1430

In response to things like , "RuBisCO is very important in terms of biological impact because it catalyzes the most commonly-used chemical reaction by which inorganic carbon enters the biosphere. RuBisCO is also the most abundant protein in leaves, and it may be the most abundant protein on Earth[2]. Given its important role in the biosphere, there are currently efforts to genetically engineer crop plants so as to contain more efficient RuBisCO (see below)," I'd like to say a few words ...


Stop messing with stuff. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
You're paid to keep / use the stuff not improve it.
KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!

This is not the only instance. I keep running into stories about how some idiots with degrees discover new gene or protein function and then promise to set to work on improving it or making it more pronounced.

Does it occur to anyone in the "biohack" community that stuff is the way it is for not just any reason , but for an OPTIMAL reason ?

Doesn't anyone who funds them realize that?

Hey Monsanto, Archer Daniel Midlands, Go To Jail, Do not collect $300, Do not pass Go.


I looked at Monsanto on the nearest/easiest source, wikipedia. I saw this as their logo(done up with a goofing slogan?)



Hey, Monsanto, stop imagining!

If I had an agribusiness or a biotech affair I wouldn't mind the slogan

"We like it the just way it is"

... Read more

Genetically modified lies

examples of uninformed apathetic design extend above & beyond the domain of software. GM crops with their tons of fertilizers and insecticides apparently do not match the crop yields of Akkadian farmers of 40 centuries ago - and we're not even talking the unusually rich egyptian soil - without any of the disasters attendant on GM agro. ... Read more