Six Theorem

Before I begin, I want to say that I don’t regret being a computer scientist. As far as theoretical studies, it is both exciting and humbling to explore the limits of what we can and cannot figure. And as far as practical applications, there is a unique and profound feeling to be experienced as a programmer, one which I have described in the past as follows:

It’s almost as if she’s actually feeling everything that is happening in the system. As if she’s fused with the machine itself. And suddenly you realize that you’ve never seen anything quite so human before as the way she seizes control of this machine, learns its native language, talks it through the invention of a new (possibly brilliant) program, and then watches as it succeeds or fails.

But having said that, I am afraid of the kind of world that social networking, gaming, and even basic tasks such as e-mail are creating. The kind which expects anyone considered consequential or even functional to be constantly on call, which relies on tools such as Facebook and Twitter to power social function, which provides a thousand instantly gratifying online alternatives to the real, organic, sometimes hazardous, but always more fulfilling, world. The kind which nonchalantly places a screen between two human beings communicating. I can’t describe the feeling I get when I see this culture developing. I once saw a photograph in a supermarket which featured a man and a woman ardently kissing, almost in the nude, but separated by the plastic films which covered their entire faces and bodies. This photograph haunted me for about a week, with an exaggerated version of that other feeling I said I couldn’t describe.

The profound satisfaction of getting to know a machine is something that disappears with ease-of-use. When a computer can be picked up and used in a blithe, carefree fashion, it is never for the sake of that zen moment of understanding a complex system outside of oneself. The computer also becomes less of a tool. Instead, it becomes an extension of the person using it, creating a new entity which I see as being not-quite-human, but rather, inhuman.

But then again, at this point, I wonder if it is worthwhile to think on this at all, as I am pretty sure I am the only one who feels this way.

All I can say is, human-computer interaction is a strange, strange thing.