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Design requires intent. Systems are rarely intended to get the exact result they end up creating. Perhaps 'adapted' rather than 'designed' would make this sta
by jhayward 8y ago
Design requires intent. Systems are rarely intended to get the exact result they end up creating.
Perhaps 'adapted' rather than 'designed' would make this statement more likely true. But then, there may be some other system that is somehow more perfectly adapted that achieves the same result.
I think in the end this isn't a useful thought.
- bopbop 8y agoThanks for responding, I respectfully disagree. The statement is saying if we look at the outputs of a system, it is producing exactly what it has been coded to do, intentionally or unintentionally. Facebook is producing exactly what it is designed to, not by a single overarching design but by hundreds or thousands of humans who have had input in to it. When the programs you mention don't get the results they were expecting, its either because of bugs in them, or because the programmers didn't understand why the output would be. The program, however, is doing exactly what it is designed to do. Facebook is attempting to monetize the signals between humans, like a robber baron AT&T trying to sit between every phone line extracting coin. It will continue to do so as long as that continues to turn profit and excellerate its worth on the stock market. Anything else is coincidental.