The authors of SICP draw a distinction between declarative knowledge (facts about the world) and procedural knowledge (instructions for how to do things). Progr

The authors of SICP draw a distinction between declarative knowledge (facts about the world) and procedural knowledge (instructions for how to do things). Programming, they say, is a way to precisely communicate procedural knowledge. Most interpersonal communication is both imprecise and not procedural knowledge, and that is the biggest difference between speaking with a person and programming a computer.