Douglas Rushkoff: Program or be Programmed is an interesting novel, which I haven’t read yet, that begs some interesting questions about the future of education, society and all that jazz. I've linked a video interview with him and I believe I've got the jist of what he's getting at.
Basically now during this media revolution we've hit a stage where its going to revert to those social elite who know how to read/write code programs if the people don't know, in general, how to program. Everything today is pretty much dictated by those who program, from the PC you're on, to the bus you take to work, the machines that make everything you use, so these people have
vast amounts of potential power over those who don't/can't program.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/01/richard-metzgers-dan.htmlThere’s also an interesting BBC news report on how the American military is lagging behind other superpowers (BRIC nations) in the digital warfare front. They've got plenty of people who want to fly UAVs but no-one to programme them at all.
I unfortunately fall into the 'can't program' group and I'm starting to find it increasingly disturbing that I owe people who programme my entire modern life, well that vast majority of it. My point here is that I think there should be a larger emphasis on teaching children how to use computers rather than software, like Rushkoff was talking about, as we're pretty much entirely reliant on digital technologies that hardly anyone knows how they work.
So yeah, what do you guys think about this? I'm assuming there’s going to be a disproportionately high number of programmers here than non-programmers.
Don't hurt me oh gracious programmers I'm only exercising my rights to free speech! Don't haxxor meeee!