I'm not a physicist or computer scientist. But I do think I recognize what the author is trying to explain when looking at code sometimes, or even differences i

I'm not a physicist or computer scientist. But I do think I recognize what the author is trying to explain when looking at code sometimes, or even differences in core mathematical operators. When looking at code and 'reading' it, a programmer is (possibly without realizing it) running the snippet of code inside their heads. It's impossible, I think, to understand a loop without running a little part of it in your own head. In a very real way, you're 'executing' the code in your head. A little part of your program is running right at that moment when you read what you or someone else wrote. In philosophy this is called the idea of multiple realizability, or functional isomorphism. The point of this is, that the outcome of the loop/code/w\e cannot be determined by looking _just_ at each and every operation or even keyword or character. The code must be _ran_ in your head to know what it does. As that point you're not looking at the 'parts' but at the 'whole'. Simply reading and comprehending the different statements but not simulating the code in your head is what a person does that cannot program in that language, they understand the words 'do', 'for', 'while', but cannot connect and parse and simulate their meaning. The result is obviously that that person wouldn't be able to understand what a loop or program was doing. They _cannot_ understand so long they don't simulate (= zoom out). Perhaps this is akin what the author and the critics are confused about. It seems that it's perfectly reasonable to start your simulation at the parts, and then scale the simulation up and predict or determine things about the whole. This works as long as you realize that along the way you've started abstracting away the details, compartmentalizing the particles and states, and that you're _actually_ looking at larger parts of the whole, instead of predicting things about the whole by looking at it's parts.