Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Computer programming: Computer programming, also known as coding, is the process of designing and writing instructions that tell a computer how to perform specific tasks. Programmers use programming languages, which are formal languages with a defined syntax and semantics, to create these instructions. Computer programming is used to create software applications, from websites and mobile apps to games and operating systems. See also Software, Computers, Syntax, Semantics, Computer languages._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Joseph Weizenbaum on Computer Programming - Dictionary of Arguments
I 305 Programmes/programming/Weizenbaum: most of the programmes currently (mid-1970s) available, especially the most extensive and important of them, are not (...) theoretically sound. They are heuristic, not necessarily in the sense that they use heuristic methods within themselves, but that their construction follows rules of thumb, strategies that seem to "function" in most foreseeable circumstances, and are based on other ad hoc mechanisms that are added from time to time. ((s) See also >Ad Hoc Hypotheses, >Quine-Duhem-Thesis. I 308 Laymen assume that first of all a human being has organized what a computer program is supposed to become before it is entered into the computer. The layman believes that this is a guarantee that a programmer has formulated and understood every detail of the process embodied by the program. But the facts speak against this assumption. Even the programmer cannot know the way of decision making in his own program, let alone know what intermediate or final results it will produce. The formulation of a programme is therefore more like the creation of a bureaucracy than the construction of a machine. Cf. >Artificial intelligence, >Artificial neural networks, >World/thinking, >Artificial consciousness, >Black box. I 311 When programs are no longer understood by an individual, they can only grow. And their growth and the associated increase in dependency is accompanied by increasing legitimacy of their "knowledge base". >Legitimation, >Legitimacy. I 313 During the Vietnam War, for example, computers were operated by officers who had no idea what was actually going on in these machines. The computers decided which villages to bomb. ... Of course, only those data could be entered into the machine that were "machine-readable", i. e. largely target information originating from other computers. I 314 The corresponding secret reports came from computers. Admiral Moorer later said himself: "... until the lies that computers were supposed to tell others, brought them down, the masters of computers". (Cf. Seymour Hersh in: New York Times August 10,1973). I 315 Weizenbaum: the huge computer systems in the Pentagon and their counterparts elsewhere in our civilization have no authors in a highly real sense. >Authorship, >Computers, >Software. Correctness/Weizenbaum: therefore they do not allow questions about "right" and "wrong", about justice or any theory on which consent or contradiction could be based. I 317 Responsibility/Weizenbaum: the myth of technical, political and social inevitability is an effective sedative for consciousness. Its function is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of anyone who believes in it. Note that it is not people, but systemes that are responsible. >Responsibility._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Weizenbaum I Joseph Weizenbaum Computer Power and Human Reason. From Judgment to Calculation, W. H. Freeman & Comp. 1976 German Edition: Die Macht der Computer und die Ohnmacht der Vernunft Frankfurt/M. 1978 |
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> Counter arguments in relation to Computer Programming
