From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Thu Jul 18 2002 - 20:05:17 MDT
Samantha Atkins
> Sent: Friday, 19 July 2002 10:58 AM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: Singularity vs. Temporal Pollution
> Michael Wiik wrote:
>
> >
> > The database, though built using an rdbms product, was
> designed by an OO
> > programmer. However, no encompassing OO model was built from which
> > applications could be designed. It was left as an exercise for each
> > programmer to make the OO model from the appropriate portions of the
> > database. If the database had been designed around a
> relational model,
> > then this would not be too difficult. A programmer would
> just map the
> > relational design to an OO design. The lack of an
> encompassing OO model
> > essentially means that each programmer has to reverse-engineer the
> > relational model from the design and re-shape it to a new
> OO model for
> > his or her application. In addition, the database has since been
> > modified by a succession of database administrators (not designers).
> > It's 'succession' since eventually the DBA's become insane
> and have to
> > resign.
>
> I took care of the need for object persistence a different way.
> I build a general object-relational mapping layer capable of
> mapping any OO data model to various relational dbms systesm.
> Using it with a particular language only requires mapping that
> language to the general OO model, a much smaller task. The OO
> programmer never sees the underlying relational infrastructure.
> They see what looks like an ODBMS and that as transparently as
> possible.
>
>
> >
> > This database is then a 'temporal polluter'. It continually
> spits out
> > turd bits into the future. Visualize this as a long winding
> path strewn
> > with poop. From this I see much application development
> work as sweeping
> > away shit. Some programmers make the design effort to
> actually cart away
> > some of the shit, while others just try and sweep it under
> the rug. From
> > a management perspective, the important thing is that the
> immediate path
> > ahead be shit-free, or at least look shit-free, and that the path is
> > sufficiently unfocused to hide the shit further ahead when
> clients come
> > to call.
> >
>
> Unfortunately, from the business and management point of view
> the prime consideration often seems to not care how many turds
> are present but only care about checking tasks off a list
> quickly and fielding new features many of which deserve
> scatological metaphors from the beginning. The product
> development people have to swim in the sewage there is never
> time enough to actually clean up.
>
NO! No scatalogical metaphors! You'd end up with committees for scatological
naming and then a society for standardisation of scatlogical nomenclature.
More shit!
Our goal, IMO is to reduce the all programming to the following one liner:
"just do it", Spoken to an semi-lobotomised AI with no private life, who's
job it is to live in this sea of shit.
:-)
> PD folks add their own varieties of course.
>
> > It then occurs to me that the whole world is on a similar path.
> > Trillions of past decisions made w/o consideration of the
> future past
> > the next financial quarter continually spew shit into the future.
> >
>
> True.
>
> > I think the singularity will have to deal with this shit,
> somehow. If
> > the singularity ignores the shit, it will hit a wall of
> built-up shit
> > and be stopped. If the singularity takes the time to cart
> away all the
> > shit, it will be slowed considerably. If the singularity is
> like Liquid
> > Plumber and dissolves the shit, we need to keep in mind that some of
> > this shit is people.
> >
>
> A lot of the shit comes from the inefficiences and inadequacies
> of human beings and human institutions imho. Hopefully upgraded
> humans and instutitions and especially a SAI would be clear a
> lot of this away or at least give us a higher grade of the same. ;)
>
> - samantha
>
>
The biggest sloppiest long range turd (refractive index unknown): The Y2K
bug.
I'm an INTP detail hater++, I can commiserate with the sentiments,
especially having spent 1000's of hours managing teams of turd hurlers.
:-) Feel that rage!
cheers
Colin
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