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>If you’re on a Mac, you can open up a program called Terminal and, with just a few lines of code, ruin your computer. You’re not supposed to screw around in th

>If you’re on a Mac, you can open up a program called Terminal and, with just a few lines of code, ruin your computer. You’re not supposed to screw around in there unless you really know what you’re doing. This is what they told us in computer class back then to make sure we don't learn anything wortwhile. Reading it on HN of all place makes me very sad.

zamadatix 3y ago
Why is the only way to learn something worthwhile about a computer to poke blindly at the terminal? Experimentation is a healthy component of learning, but that doesn't make it the only component of learning. Preferably, you at least learn enough about the computer beforehand to know what you risk messing up and roughly how long it might take to get back to the previous state so you can experiment more than once. At that point you "really know what you're doing".
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  GP is right in that "fear of screwing up" is a huge blocker in learning computers. It's really hard to screw anything up so badly that you can't recover by reinstalling the OS / factory-resetting the device, worst-case losing some data and a few hours of your time. But with brains, well, every such screw up would be debilitating or fatal to the person whose brain sits at the other end of your REPL.
  - dmbche 3y ago
    Just a thought - I'm realising that I internalised this fear with computers, having been raised with this idea that they are "easy to screw up, better not to look inside". It was fair when we had a computer room and a family computer, but since you can buy a second hand laptop for less than 50$, and as you said can solve most issues very easily, it is not warranted at all. Edit: I'm fine now, I used to be on Arch btw
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      The fear was much more real back then. I too grew up with a family computer, but I was the only one being able to both break it and then fix it afterwards... Fortunately, there was nothing that couldn't be fixed by reinstalling the OS, and I quickly picked up on the advice to have separate "System" and "Data" partitions, so you don't lose anything important if you need to wipe the OS.
      - FearNotDaniel 3y ago
        Reading this makes me realize how incredibly lucky I was to grow up in the eight bit days. When we got our first family computer, a ZX Spectrum, one of the first things I learned is that it was 100% impossible to break the thing just by pressing keys on the keyboard. Just unplug, restart, and the whole tiny system is loaded from ROM. That gave me the freedom to explore fearlessly what the system could do, and what I could do to it. Edit: I'm sure by now somebody has found a way to thrash the system so hard that it somehow causes irreversible hardware damage just by running software; but I guess that would have to be the result of considerable, purposeful effort from somebody who knew exactly what they were doing.
- deleted 3y ago
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TeMPOraL 3y ago
Fair, but it's still a good analogy, especially for less technically inclined. If our brains were easy to interface with or scramble remotely, it would become way too easy for one to kill or severely mess up themselves or others, possibly at scale. With computers, especially today, almost anything can be fixed by a reboot and maybe a rollback. But can you imagine having a REPL to your own brain and accidentally screwing something up? Say, disabling higher functions, or launching an infinitely recursive function, and then losing connection? You can't exactly reboot your brain.

zamadatix 3y ago

Why is the only way to learn something worthwhile about a computer to poke blindly at the terminal? Experimentation is a healthy component of learning, but that doesn't make it the only component of learning. Preferably, you at least learn enough about the computer beforehand to know what you risk messing up and roughly how long it might take to get back to the previous state so you can experiment more than once. At that point you "really know what you're doing".

TeMPOraL 3y ago
GP is right in that "fear of screwing up" is a huge blocker in learning computers. It's really hard to screw anything up so badly that you can't recover by reinstalling the OS / factory-resetting the device, worst-case losing some data and a few hours of your time. But with brains, well, every such screw up would be debilitating or fatal to the person whose brain sits at the other end of your REPL.
- dmbche 3y ago
  Just a thought - I'm realising that I internalised this fear with computers, having been raised with this idea that they are "easy to screw up, better not to look inside". It was fair when we had a computer room and a family computer, but since you can buy a second hand laptop for less than 50$, and as you said can solve most issues very easily, it is not warranted at all. Edit: I'm fine now, I used to be on Arch btw
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    The fear was much more real back then. I too grew up with a family computer, but I was the only one being able to both break it and then fix it afterwards... Fortunately, there was nothing that couldn't be fixed by reinstalling the OS, and I quickly picked up on the advice to have separate "System" and "Data" partitions, so you don't lose anything important if you need to wipe the OS.
    - FearNotDaniel 3y ago
      Reading this makes me realize how incredibly lucky I was to grow up in the eight bit days. When we got our first family computer, a ZX Spectrum, one of the first things I learned is that it was 100% impossible to break the thing just by pressing keys on the keyboard. Just unplug, restart, and the whole tiny system is loaded from ROM. That gave me the freedom to explore fearlessly what the system could do, and what I could do to it. Edit: I'm sure by now somebody has found a way to thrash the system so hard that it somehow causes irreversible hardware damage just by running software; but I guess that would have to be the result of considerable, purposeful effort from somebody who knew exactly what they were doing.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Fair, but it's still a good analogy, especially for less technically inclined. If our brains were easy to interface with or scramble remotely, it would become way too easy for one to kill or severely mess up themselves or others, possibly at scale. With computers, especially today, almost anything can be fixed by a reboot and maybe a rollback. But can you imagine having a REPL to your own brain and accidentally screwing something up? Say, disabling higher functions, or launching an infinitely recursive function, and then losing connection? You can't exactly reboot your brain.