And if these abstractions do survive contact with reality, it's often reality that has to change to adapt to the abstraction. You find yourself saying, "the co

And if these abstractions do survive contact with reality, it's often reality that has to change to adapt to the abstraction. You find yourself saying, "the computer can't do that", not for any fundamental reason, but because the abstraction wasn't designed with that in mind. The unfortunate users have to change the way they work to match the abstraction. Seeing Like a State describes a similar situation, where people had to give themselves last names so they could be taxed reliably. I wonder how many people have had to enter their Facebook name differently for it to be considered a "real name"? Software that "sees" the world in a particular way is a lot like a state bureaucracy that "sees" the world in a particular way, especially when this software is given power.