4 ms·

Betterment of the species?This is another conceit a certain segment of the SE community has. You aren’t physicists, engineers, biologists or chemists; nor are y

by sidlls 5y ago

Betterment of the species?This is another conceit a certain segment of the SE community has. You aren’t physicists, engineers, biologists or chemists; nor are you artists or philosophers. I’d estimate something like 99% of all software development (especially, perhaps, open source) is either for toys or else actively harmful. “Betterment of the species” indeed.

michaelmrose 5y ago
Most things that most people contribute in life are small in impact. We could stand to give away more things of higher impact too instead of maximizing profit.
- sidlls 5y ago
  Yes, I understand that point, but it's not really what I was getting at. My point is that most software, even or especially open source, isn't even "small impact" (in a positive sense). It's just toys, learning experiments, or used for active harm, etc. Almost no software written today contributes to any "betterment of the species," no matter how small. If software engineers want to contribute in that way, they should support the research efforts of individuals in the areas I mentioned. Those projects are meaningful and impactful. But they're a tiny fraction of software developed. It's simply an incredibly ignorant conceit to fancy oneself as providing even small impact simply because one writes some software.
d110af5ccf 5y ago
> (especially, perhaps, open source) How do you reason? Are Linux, sqlite, LLVM, or OpenSSL actively harmful? KDE? Blender? Those are obviously not "toys" and each seems genuinely helpful and useful to me.
mrmonkeyman 5y ago
All these groups you mention would collapse into uselessness the second SE pulls back, with perhaps philosophers and maybe artists holding out for a while. Without computation these fields are now worthless. They used to function without SE of course, back when the fruits were plentiful and low-hanging but the times have changed. So.. yeah..

by sidlls 5y ago

michaelmrose 5y ago

Most things that most people contribute in life are small in impact. We could stand to give away more things of higher impact too instead of maximizing profit.

sidlls 5y ago
Yes, I understand that point, but it's not really what I was getting at. My point is that most software, even or especially open source, isn't even "small impact" (in a positive sense). It's just toys, learning experiments, or used for active harm, etc. Almost no software written today contributes to any "betterment of the species," no matter how small. If software engineers want to contribute in that way, they should support the research efforts of individuals in the areas I mentioned. Those projects are meaningful and impactful. But they're a tiny fraction of software developed. It's simply an incredibly ignorant conceit to fancy oneself as providing even small impact simply because one writes some software.

d110af5ccf 5y ago

> (especially, perhaps, open source) How do you reason? Are Linux, sqlite, LLVM, or OpenSSL actively harmful? KDE? Blender? Those are obviously not "toys" and each seems genuinely helpful and useful to me.

mrmonkeyman 5y ago

All these groups you mention would collapse into uselessness the second SE pulls back, with perhaps philosophers and maybe artists holding out for a while. Without computation these fields are now worthless. They used to function without SE of course, back when the fruits were plentiful and low-hanging but the times have changed. So.. yeah..