7.19.2011 An abstract dialog continues in a virtual space:

F: Can programming function outside the computer?

J: You've got it the wrong way around. Computers are only automating older established patterns of control. Social programming is how society was formed! Laws, rules, social norms, morals, ethics, media messages, peer pressure, ritual, ceremony, myth, family obligations, I mean, come on, we are much more comfortable being in a well defined program than living with the stress and uncertainty created when we make up the rules as we go along. Isn't someone supposed to tell us what to do and not do or at least give us a good story so we know what is expected of us?

F: But in a computer there are special commands, words, that change things, that do what they say. We write in those words and the computer makes the changes. Nothing is like that in society - spoken english words that do more than describe; that invoke real change or actions.

J: No so. How about "I claim this?"

F: Okay, I can see how those words make change, but that change only happens when there is person to person agreement , you know, when there is a system for the words to operate in.

J: An operating system?

F: Huh?....oh - okay - I can see the connection. Does that mean that all information is meaningless without an agreed upon code?

J: Information without context is just data.

F: Okay, lets switch to the physical level. A programming word as machine code can also operate a tool and change the physical world. What english words make physical changes?

J: How about "I love you" or "we should see other people?" Can't those words, meaningfully spoken, produce measurable chemical changes in a body?

F: I see that; but I'm thinking more about cutting wood or moving dirt.

J: Well, at that point, what is the difference between using words to push a button and pushing the button yourself? It all comes back to the mind of the programmer. The programmer makes the decision about what command to use and how to use it whether he's a code hack on an PC or a general commanding an army.
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