4 ms·

> a century from now when all of us are dead who cares if our confidential info gets released to the public then? I'm reminded of Vernor Vinge's far-future sci

> a century from now when all of us are dead who cares if our confidential info gets released to the public then? I'm reminded of Vernor Vinge's far-future scifi "A Deepness in the Sky," where "programmer-archaeologist" is one of the occupations. (along with "programmer-at-arms")

unexistance 9y ago
those are more to 'reading' source codes to find the functionality you want, but I do get what you mean
tetha 9y ago
As I keep saying. Some people chuckle about Warhammer 40k Techno Priests. The only people in the warhammer universe with some chance to understand the centuries old compuer systems and machines. Other people work with legacy systems.
- ENGNR 9y ago
  It's pretty genius how they've turned ancient maintenance routines into prayers and rituals in order to preserve the knowledge and scale out the work force
  - RubenSandwich 9y ago
    We do it too. I hold my breath every time I kick over an old server that it comes back again. They just formalized it.
  - posterboy 9y ago
    it might lead to cargo culting though, already hoards of programmers are chanting refrains of "_ considered harmful" and "_ is the root of all evil" ... ;)
    - eru 9y ago
      It's deliberately _worse_ than cargo culting in Warhammer 40k. That universe is deliberately set up to be as bleak and cynical as possible. Partly just for fun, partly to serve the game a justification why any faction would get into a skirmish with any other faction (including itself).
  - adrianN 9y ago
    The oldest occurence of this idea that I know of is in Asimov's Foundation series, where a class of priests preserves knowledge about nuclear technology and robots.
  - andyzweb 9y ago
    knowledge is a priesthood
- eru 9y ago
  The Tau might be able to reverse engineer?
ben_w 9y ago
I’ve just been listening to that. It’s remarkable how much AI can already do, compared to the limits assumed in the story.
- pmontra 9y ago
  And how technology starts hijacking people' minds. From HN, one year ago and a few days ago: https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3 https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peop... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphon...

unexistance 9y ago

those are more to 'reading' source codes to find the functionality you want, but I do get what you mean

tetha 9y ago

As I keep saying. Some people chuckle about Warhammer 40k Techno Priests. The only people in the warhammer universe with some chance to understand the centuries old compuer systems and machines. Other people work with legacy systems.

ENGNR 9y ago
It's pretty genius how they've turned ancient maintenance routines into prayers and rituals in order to preserve the knowledge and scale out the work force
- RubenSandwich 9y ago
  We do it too. I hold my breath every time I kick over an old server that it comes back again. They just formalized it.
- posterboy 9y ago
  it might lead to cargo culting though, already hoards of programmers are chanting refrains of "_ considered harmful" and "_ is the root of all evil" ... ;)
  - eru 9y ago
    It's deliberately _worse_ than cargo culting in Warhammer 40k. That universe is deliberately set up to be as bleak and cynical as possible. Partly just for fun, partly to serve the game a justification why any faction would get into a skirmish with any other faction (including itself).
- adrianN 9y ago
  The oldest occurence of this idea that I know of is in Asimov's Foundation series, where a class of priests preserves knowledge about nuclear technology and robots.
- andyzweb 9y ago
  knowledge is a priesthood
eru 9y ago
The Tau might be able to reverse engineer?

ben_w 9y ago

I’ve just been listening to that. It’s remarkable how much AI can already do, compared to the limits assumed in the story.

pmontra 9y ago
And how technology starts hijacking people' minds. From HN, one year ago and a few days ago: https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3 https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-technology-hijacks-peop... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphon...