Book-Reader-Assist/library/The Psychology of Computer Programming/Interlude-Part-5-Epilogue/Interlude-source-text.md

The Psychology of Computer Programming — Interlude: Part 5: Epilogue

• Source: /library/The Psychology of Computer Programming/source-file.pdf
• PDF pages: 340–346
• Pages without text: 341, 342
• OCR note: OCR is supplied below for image-only pages; multi-column reading order may be imperfect, so consult the PDF for layout and visuals.
• Note: Original epilogue and Silver Anniversary comments on the epilogue.

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PART EPILOGUE

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eaders who reach the end of a book are entitled to some praise from the author, since they have paid him the greatest compli- ment an author can receive. Yet those readers who do reach the end are probably in less need of rewards than the dropout, for it would seem impossible to go all the way through any book without receiv- ing the reward of learning. Perhaps it is possible to go through this book without being touched, although as one reviewer commented, ‘One comes away with the feeling of having spent a pleasant but somewhat ‘wasted’ afternoon of reading, and as the old joke goes, ‘it ain’t till you try to turn your head that you realize how sharp the razor was.’”’ Al- though | would have been happier with a less violent metaphor, the re- mark captures what the book has tried to do. My students have had the same reaction. A typical remark made a year after attending a seminar is: “It was pleasant enough talking about those things, but then | began to see what was going on at the office. Wow!” The most important thing that this student learned was not any par- ticular behavioral science result or the name of so-and-so’s law to parrot back on a test. What he learned was that he had been carrying around with him all his life a well-equipped machine for observing behavior— but that it had never been used very much. As an anonymous sign at the computing center put it: ' The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity—the rest is overhead for the operating system. So rather than be concerned so much about that computer operating 277

278 Epilogue system, the reader who has really been touched by this book will start to work on the operating system he carries around in his own central proc- essihg unit—his head. That will be his reward. But if we make our own operating systems more efficient, if we observe ourselves and our surroundings more carefully, and if this efficiency and observation lead us to be more productive programmers, of what use is it? The stories of the three wishes send us a message from many Ccul- tures, and from the ancient past: “If you get your fondest wish, what then?” If, by psychological, sociological, and anthropological investiga- tion or by simple heightened awareness we become better programmers, to what work shall we turn our talents? For if something is not worth doing, it is certainly not worth doing right. Is what we are doing with computers worth doing? Is what you are doing with computers worth doing? Because computers are such fascinat- ing beasts, because programming is such a game, such a joy, we who program computers are in danger of becoming the unwitting pawns of those who would use our toys for not-so-playful ends. Can there be any doubt that if Hitler had computers at his command, one of the first application would have been keeping closer track on Jews and Gypsies so that all who should have gone to the ovens did go to the ovens? Can there by any doubt that if Pilate had computers, they would have been used to keep the information from informers, the better to crucify those that were crying out for crucifixion by their heretical zeal? Can there be any doubt that somewhere in our country today some human beings are using computers as just another, finer weapon in their arsenal of ways to subjugate other human beings to their wishes—to their conception of the proper life of man? And having said all that, can there be any doubt that such people— now as in 1939 or at the dawn of the Christian era—find many willing hands and brains to carry out their work in return for fun and profit? Or that some of those willing hands will have held this book, to the profit of their employers? Many years ago, just a few years after | wrote my first book with Herb Leeds, | read an article describing experiments in which monkeys were subjected to various doses of poison gases, evidentally to see how long it took them to die. The work was done in a laboratory for chemical war- fare research, with the intent, no doubt, of extrapolating it to human beings. Thirty-six innocent monkeys, as | recall, met their deaths in this gruesome way so that someday, perhaps, thirty-six million people could meet their deaths even more efficiently. The article remained in my mind for months afterward, and indeed it has remained there to this day. By pure coincidence, | suppose, | was accosted at a meeting by a nice young man who had gone out of his way to tell me how much he had

Epilogue 279 learned from our book, how much it had helped him to become a better programmer. | asked him what sort of work he did, and he replied that he worked at a laboratory for chemical warfare research. Afterward, | tried to rationalize my way out of my depression by imagining that it was a different laboratory, which it might have been, or that he never worked on the monkey experiment, which might also have been true. But | knew that somewhere, someone who had learned from me was participating in such experiments and worse. | knew that | shared the responsibility—that writing a book is not merely teaching means to unknown and unimagined ends. For a long time | could not write, perhaps for that reason, or perhaps for others. But, eventually, my ego got the better of me and | began again, determined to try making my books unusable to any but the pure at heart. To a certain extent, this book may have achieved that goal, for the idea of the programmer as a human being is not going to appeal to cer- tain types of people, and they will neither finish the book nor profit from it. But it is naive, | now realize, to expect that bad systems cannot be built by people with good hearts. Otherwise, why would | encounter so many bad systems when almost all of the people | meet are wonderful? No, something else is needed, something not within the power of an author to give to a reader. As Malraux once said, “It is the work of a lifetime to make a man.” A book can be but a tiny part of that work— the rest is up to you, and the work will never be finished. Having said all that, | do not shrink from personal responsibility for what | have done in writing this book. We stand at the brink of a new age, an age made possible by the revolution that is embodied in the computer. Standing on the brink, we could totter either way—to a golden age of liberty or a dark age of tyranny, either of which would surpass anything the world has ever known. Perhaps no individual’s efforts will make any difference in the result, but we must never cease trying, for then the result is sure to be tyranny. This book is my effort against the tyranny, the enslavement of men by other men and by their own ignorance. Would that it not be adopted by the forces of tyranny themselves, as no doubt it will be. Lacking that hope, | can only hope that its use to the other forces will, in the balance, be greater.

SS Silver Anniversary Notes Comments on Part 5: Epilogue This Epilogue has stood the test of time, and | have nothing to add. As a new epilogue for this Silver Anniversary Edition, however, I’d like to invite you to do two things that | wasn’t able to offer twenty-five years ago. First, if you’d like to Keep current on what I’m doing and thinking, writing and teaching, | invite you to visit my website: http://www.geraldmweinberg.com Second, if you’d like to share some of your ideas, observations, or experi- ences with me, go to my website and send me e-mail. You should always be able to reach me from there, at least as long as |’m still around. Hopefully, that will be long enough for me to write a Golden Anniversary Edition of The Psychology of Computer Programming.