Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!killer!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylor From: paigen@pixar.UUCP (David Paigen) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: Computer Literacy: The Pigeonhole Principle Message-ID: <546@hptsug2.HP.COM> Date: 26 Sep 88 22:22:51 GMT Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM Lines: 33 Approved: taylor@hplabs I have three main responses to the article: 1) I would make an analogy between "computer literacy" and auto mechanics. Not everyone in this society knows how to fix a car, yet we all know better than to trust a mechanic. :-) Eventually, people will learn what they need to know about computers just by living in the society, and make use of programmers and engineers when needed. 2) I think there are, and will be, many similarities between the "industrial revolution" and the "information revolution". In just a few generations, people will have at their fingertips (literally) more information by orders of magnitude than we are able to find today in any libraries. However, this will come at a cost. Today we all have dining room tables, most of which are poorly made. The information of 50 years from now will probably be copious, but will have little relation to reality. 3) The application of "scientific management" to programming (e.g. top down programming) will not take away the creativity and flair of programming. This is like saying that the scientific method takes the creativity and intuition out of science. Besides, both of my parents are research biologists, so I grew up in a scientific community. The last person I spoke with who claimed to adhere strictly to the scientific method was my seventh grade homeroom teacher. Well, there you have it. David Paigen