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I'd say there's good reasons to treat some layers as black boxes, but not as magic; you use abstractions precisely because mental space is limited, not because

I'd say there's good reasons to treat some layers as black boxes, but not as magic; you use abstractions precisely because mental space is limited, not because the underlying object is intrinsically non-understandable. As I replied to another comment below, I wrote "is capable of doing", not "does".

avyfain 9y ago
This made me think of GEB: > ... we all know that we human beings are composed of an enormous number of cells (around wenty-five trillion), and therefore that everything we do could in principle be described in terms of cells. Or it could even be described on the level of molecules. Most of us accept this in a rather matter-of-fact way; we go to the doctor, who looks at us on lower levels than we think of ourselves. We read about DNA and "genetic engineering" and sip our coffee. We seem to have reconciled these two inconceivably different pictures of ourselves simply by disconnecting them from each other. We have almost no way to relate a microscopic description of ourselves to that which we feel ourselves to be, and hence it is possible to store separate representations of ourselves in quite separate "compartments" of our minds. Seldom do we have to flip back and forth between these two concepts of ourselves, wondering "How can these two totally different things be the same me?" -Douglas Hofstadter, "Gödel, Escher, Bach", Chapter 10
reificator 9y ago
As I replied to another comment below: I understand the distinction you're making but in my experience the words are interchangeable. Just because I treat a system as magic one moment does not mean that I can't later dive under the hood and fix it the next. It's just a matter of context switching.
- jonnydubowsky 9y ago
  Many thanks to Reificator, avyfain, and ggambetta for the string of comments which synthesize so much of how i think about cyberphysical systems, but in a way that has crystalized it and given me a breakthrough in writing for my research. I'll ping you the result of this if you are open to a dm. Either way, you've given me a gift in your comments and bogdamp, awesome post! Quite pure and actionable insights.

avyfain 9y ago

This made me think of GEB: > ... we all know that we human beings are composed of an enormous number of cells (around wenty-five trillion), and therefore that everything we do could in principle be described in terms of cells. Or it could even be described on the level of molecules. Most of us accept this in a rather matter-of-fact way; we go to the doctor, who looks at us on lower levels than we think of ourselves. We read about DNA and "genetic engineering" and sip our coffee. We seem to have reconciled these two inconceivably different pictures of ourselves simply by disconnecting them from each other. We have almost no way to relate a microscopic description of ourselves to that which we feel ourselves to be, and hence it is possible to store separate representations of ourselves in quite separate "compartments" of our minds. Seldom do we have to flip back and forth between these two concepts of ourselves, wondering "How can these two totally different things be the same me?" -Douglas Hofstadter, "Gödel, Escher, Bach", Chapter 10

reificator 9y ago

As I replied to another comment below: I understand the distinction you're making but in my experience the words are interchangeable. Just because I treat a system as magic one moment does not mean that I can't later dive under the hood and fix it the next. It's just a matter of context switching.

jonnydubowsky 9y ago
Many thanks to Reificator, avyfain, and ggambetta for the string of comments which synthesize so much of how i think about cyberphysical systems, but in a way that has crystalized it and given me a breakthrough in writing for my research. I'll ping you the result of this if you are open to a dm. Either way, you've given me a gift in your comments and bogdamp, awesome post! Quite pure and actionable insights.