Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.python > #100307

Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever?

Show all headers | View raw

On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 1:34:54 AM UTC-6, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> Rick Johnson :
> 
> > python was originally created to be an easy language for noobs to
> > learn
> 
> Really? That's would be a silly objective for a programming language.
> 
> > many a noob has been stumped
> 
> So?
> 
> You have to first placate the experts and the "noobs" will follow.

Okay i get it. So in your opinion, a technology is *ONLY* worthy if it requires a large amount of special training to wield it? 

Well, in that case you'd better start organizing a revived Luddite movement, because i can assure you that as we progress into the future, more and more of the processes that required "human specialist" will be replaced with computational devices that are purposefully designed to expose the most intuitive interface possible. 

PSST: THIS IS THE FUTURE! AND IT'S ALREADY STEAMROLLING AHEAD WITHOUT YOU!

Just about anything a human specialist can do, a machine can already, or will in a short time, do better, faster, and more consistently. This is a fact! We humans are terrible at solving problems that require extreme precision, repetition, data mining, memory recall, and many other processes that computational machines do with great ease. 

Any problem solving process can be broken down into it's atomic components, and reassembled as a logical algorithm. Even doctors will soon be replaced with machines, which will raise the quality of health care to a level never seen. There is almost no skill that is beyond the clutches of the algorithm.

In fact, the only skill that we humans posses which cannot yet be emulated, is the power of our imagination. Therefor, our goal should not be to create more "specialist", who toil away doing menial tasks like slaves, no, but to foster the creative potential of the human mind. 

By first *understanding* algorithmic processes, and then *abstracting* those processes in logic form, and finally *relegating* those abstractions to computational machines (that expose intuitive interfaces), we will enter an age of creative enlightenment such as this world has never seen. Just as the information age brought all the worlds knowledge to our fingertips, the relegation of menial tasks will free our bodies so that our minds can utilize that vast trove of knowledge to drive our technological evolution into overdrive. 

And as far as i'm concerned, we can't get there fast enough! 

So if you want to cling to a world where your "special skills" are nothing more than "job security", well then, go ahead. As for myself, and the vast majority of humanity, we will forge on with or without you!

 SO GOODBYE, AND GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-01 12:00 +1100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Josef Pktd <josef.pktd@gmail.com> - 2015-11-30 19:45 -0800
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-11-30 21:54 -0800
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2015-12-01 09:34 +0200
      Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-12-11 13:06 -0800
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-01 18:55 +1100
      Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-12-01 12:33 -0800
        Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-02 11:57 +1100
        Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-12-01 22:48 -0600
          Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-12-11 14:13 -0800
            Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-12 15:44 +1100
              Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-12-12 16:56 +1100
              Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-12-14 18:33 -0800
      Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2015-12-02 12:47 +1100
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> - 2015-12-01 16:56 +0000
      Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2015-12-01 13:15 -0800
        Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? "Albert Visser" <albert.visser@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 19:08 +0100
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-12-02 13:14 +1300
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? eryk sun <eryksun@gmail.com> - 2015-12-01 01:22 -0600
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-01 18:57 +1100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Manolo Martínez <manolo@austrohungaro.com> - 2015-12-01 09:44 +0100
    Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-12-02 12:12 +1100
      Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-12-02 08:51 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-12-01 11:40 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Manolo Martínez <manolo@austrohungaro.com> - 2015-12-01 22:31 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-12-01 23:41 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? boB Stepp <robertvstepp@gmail.com> - 2015-12-01 20:20 -0600
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? wxjmfauth@gmail.com - 2015-12-01 23:46 -0800
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 10:22 +0200
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Manolo Martínez <manolo@austrohungaro.com> - 2015-12-02 10:09 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 20:28 +1100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 20:33 +1100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Manolo Martínez <manolo@austrohungaro.com> - 2015-12-02 10:40 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-12-02 11:48 +0100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 22:02 +1100
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? eryk sun <eryksun@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 05:34 -0600
  Re: Is vars() the most useless Python built-in ever? Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2015-12-04 10:42 +0200

csiph-web