I don't think there is a "Human-Centered" programming. Or rather, I think it's Excel: the spreadsheet is the most successful programming system. That's what "

I don't think there is a "Human-Centered" programming. Or rather, I think it's Excel: the spreadsheet is the most successful programming system. That's what "Human-Centered" programming looks like. If you think of computers as generic amplifiers (of complex algorithmic tasks) then it's obvious that some people are using them more effectively than others. I think the way to benefit people (with computers) is just to get them to understand them well enough to move from the former (low effectiveness) to the latter (high effectiveness) groups. The concept of the Turing Machine is itself the empowering thing, the magic meme that pushes the pre-mechanical mind into the techno-sphere. Rationality is, strictly speaking, superior to irrationality (and yet there is a realm of the trans-rational, to which rationality eventually leads and defers.) And what is the computer but the essence of rational thought reified into mechanism? That fact that they are literally everywhere by now, cheaper than dirt, is a nice bonus. "It doesn't matter why they're dressed as a tiger, have they got my leg?" To me the way to be humane with computers is to teach people what they are. Once infected with the meme it's up to them what to do. Otherwise you're just building another OLPC.