Monday, April 6, 2020

Beautiful Software

There are three strange facts that force me to consider good software to be (among other things) beautiful and natural, compelling us to examine closely what these words mean.
  1. People can tell the difference between something that is natural, that is, not man-made, and something that is a human artifact.
  2. However it's measured, nature makes more complex products than we can. Of course, the human species is an 'artifact' of nature, so we can never win that game.
  3. Among the products of nature and humans, we judge the best to be 'natural and 'beautiful'.
Regarding (1) -- of course it is possible to fool people: with a photograph, for example. But when we do so, we are merely re-emphasizing that there is a perceptual faculty, in the brain, that reacts to impressions of natural structure.

Regarding (2) -- there are many wonderfully complex natural products, perhaps all of them, that are complex that we cannot comprehend how they were constructed. And yet, we know that good software must be comprehensible. This puts into the question the value of pursuing an understanding of nature's methods, since we will not be able to exactly produce things the way that nature does. However: a) we do not even understand the way that we produce things, from the point of view of the natural sciences, but we try anyway, and find it helpful; and b) the natural sciences exist in order to become more enlightened about nature's nature, in part to discover more about our own nature, which can in turn be used to improve what we do, if applied responsibly. We don't need to copy nature exactly. We just need to do better than we're doing now.

Regarding (3) -- there are many human artifacts and processes, even very popular and 'successful' ones, that are neither beautiful nor natural. Over the decades, I've found this to be a good indication of a harmful product or process. Popular and dominant is not necessarily good, but, unfortunately, by habit, and power projection through our society, these bad habits are often called 'best practices'. Learning to question these dogmas is one of the most important skills one can develop in life -- along with an ability to piece together those qualities that should replace the dogmas. This process of enlightenment, in the broad sense, should never end.

Finally, even the most beautiful and natural software will do harm if it was not created freely and coöperatively, for the purpose of healing and helping people and the ecology. Responsibility is rarely practiced in the creation of any technology, but we won't survive unless we become truly, doggedly responsible.

We'll be examining these ideas and practices in a global educational and research initiative, consisting of conferences, classes, discussions, and publications. You are all invited.


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