Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete
Metadata
Highlights
- The computer standsbetwixt and between the world of formal systems and physical things; it has the ability to make theabstract concrete. In the simplest case, an object moving on a computer screen might be defined bythe most formal of rules and so be like a construct in pure mathematics; but at the same time it isvisible, almost tangible, and allows a sense of direct manipulation that only the enculturedmathematician can feel in traditional formal systems
- s a carrier forpluralistic ideas, the computer holds the promise of catalyzing change, not only within computationbut in our culture at large.
- With a structured programming style, one usually does not feel comfortable with a construct until itis thoroughly black-boxed, with both its inner workings and all traces of the perhaps messy processof its construction hidden from view. Many programmers feel a sense of power when they useblack-boxed programs, perhaps because of the thought that others might take them up exactly asfrozen.But black-boxing makes other programmers nervous rather than exultant.
- Bricolage is a way to organize work. It is not a stage in a progression to a superiorform. Indeed, there is a culture of adult programming virtuosos, the hacker culture, that wouldrecognize many elements of the bricolage style as their own. And interviews with graduate studentsin computer science turned up highly skilled bricoleurs, most of them aware that their style was”countercultural.”
- The development of a new computer culture would require more than technological progress andmore than environments where there is permission to work with highly personal approaches. Itwould require a new and softer construction of the technological, with a new set of intellectual andemotional values more like those we apply to harpsichords than hammers
- If computers are reallythe tools we use to write, to design, to play with ideas and shapes and images, they should not beaddressed with the language of desktop calculators. Moving out of the impasse also would requirethe reconstruction of our cultural assumptions about hard logic as the “law” of thought. Addressingthis question brings us full circle to where we began, with the assertion that epistemologicalpluralism is a necessary condition for a more inclusive computer culture
title: “Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete”
author: “web.media.mit.edu”
url: ”https://web.media.mit.edu/~ascii/papers/turkle_papert_1990.pdf”
date: 2023-12-19
source: hypothesis
tags: media/articles
Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete
Metadata
Highlights
- The computer standsbetwixt and between the world of formal systems and physical things; it has the ability to make theabstract concrete. In the simplest case, an object moving on a computer screen might be defined bythe most formal of rules and so be like a construct in pure mathematics; but at the same time it isvisible, almost tangible, and allows a sense of direct manipulation that only the enculturedmathematician can feel in traditional formal systems
- s a carrier forpluralistic ideas, the computer holds the promise of catalyzing change, not only within computationbut in our culture at large.
- With a structured programming style, one usually does not feel comfortable with a construct until itis thoroughly black-boxed, with both its inner workings and all traces of the perhaps messy processof its construction hidden from view. Many programmers feel a sense of power when they useblack-boxed programs, perhaps because of the thought that others might take them up exactly asfrozen.But black-boxing makes other programmers nervous rather than exultant.
- Bricolage is a way to organize work. It is not a stage in a progression to a superiorform. Indeed, there is a culture of adult programming virtuosos, the hacker culture, that wouldrecognize many elements of the bricolage style as their own. And interviews with graduate studentsin computer science turned up highly skilled bricoleurs, most of them aware that their style was”countercultural.”
- The development of a new computer culture would require more than technological progress andmore than environments where there is permission to work with highly personal approaches. Itwould require a new and softer construction of the technological, with a new set of intellectual andemotional values more like those we apply to harpsichords than hammers
- If computers are reallythe tools we use to write, to design, to play with ideas and shapes and images, they should not beaddressed with the language of desktop calculators. Moving out of the impasse also would requirethe reconstruction of our cultural assumptions about hard logic as the “law” of thought. Addressingthis question brings us full circle to where we began, with the assertion that epistemologicalpluralism is a necessary condition for a more inclusive computer culture