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moshez comments on Archimedes's Chronophone - Less Wrong
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I know it's ancient, but what the hell, I finally have answers!
"Archimedes, you should teach everybody to program. Every boy, every girl, at as early an age as you find possible. Computers are all around us, and knowing how to program gives us power over them, and lets us be in control of our universe."
I hope it comes out as
"Archimedes, you should teach everybody to read, write and the basic of mathematics. Every boy of reasonable upbringing, at as early an age as you find possible. Scrolls full of words and math are all around us, and knowing how to parse them give us power over them, and lets us be in control of our universe."
I'm kind of sad that it comes out as "every boy of reasonable upbringing", but since I see "every boy, every girl" as executing my time's algorithm of "who can learn" (I didn't propose teaching chimps or dolphins), that's the best I can do. Regardless, if you think how programming is treated as a specialization now, instead of as a basic art, I hope that I actually conveyed something useful to Archimedes.
Also: "Archimedes, copyright and DRM are evil. They hamper the transfer of knowledge, and make people get used to being slaves to others' whims."
If I'm very, very lucky, that might come out as an argument against slavery. If I convince Archimedes to end slavery, I consider it a big big win :)
!! This obviously implies that we should be trying to teach chimps and dolphins!
That does not follow. I followed the algorithm of "check who my counter-parts think is teachable according to the most cutting edge research", so Archimedes follows the same algorithm. However, I happen to really truly believe that my time's beliefs on this specific issue are fairly accurate -- and that even though Archimedes probably believed the same about his time, he's wrong and I'm right.
Typo?
Yes :)
Yes, humans should teach programming to chimps and dolphins. Who but a racist would disagree?
That doesn't mean that you must teach them that specific skill now, with their current knowledge -- there are pre-requisites you will have to cover first. But you certainly need to attempt the first steps.
Well, some people are trying to teach chimps sign language or similar. Success there seems likely to be a necessary prerequisite for teaching them programming.