Customer Reviews

The Philosophical Programmer: Reflections on the Moth in the Machine

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've always thought that, if you don't understand how a tool works, and where it came from, it is impossible to use it effectively. It doesn't matter whether the tool is a power saw, a bulldozer, or a computer. The Philosophical Programmer provides just that kind of background for computers. The book's cover calls it "a programming book for English majors," but it's considerably more than that. Even if you have absolutely no desire to know the evolution of memory chips and programming languages, you should still read the rest of this book. If you're already neck-deep in geek, read it for the insights about the computer as a tool and an extension of a person.

What I had hoped to find in The Philosophical Programmer was insights into the synergies between philosophy and programming. What I got was yet another introduction to programming, albeit a quality one.

A more accurate title would be Introduction To Programming By a Philosophical Author. In other words, the author has a sound philosophy for describing various aspects of programming (and making them intuitive), but offers no philosophy for a programmer to apply to her or his job.

What I wanted but didn't get was a fresh perspective on what a programmer does and how she or he can apply various philosphies to make them better. For example, Descartes' method of doubt is perfectly suited to coding.

I recommend this book to anyone who needs a general (and soft) introduction to programming. If your a seasoned vet, read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Other programming texts will teach you to be a code construction worker, this book will teach you to be an artist. Covers many of the forgotten or overlooked aspects of programming and explores what it means to be a coder. A unique and excellent book.

Kohanski's preface states: "Yet there has been very little discussion about what programming is and about the meaning of programs for our lives. This book tries to look at that question, and to look at it from a philosophical perspective."

He goes on to describe the world in which programs live (or die...), the computer. He starts with the first-ever human tool for expanding the power of minds, the medieval clock. The second and third chapters examine the aesthetics and ethics of programming.

Throughout the narrative , Kohanski lays stress upon the insight that the programmable computer is the first technology that humans have invented to amplify the powers of their minds. Thus, there is no previous experience upon which to draw for lessons of its dangers, and these dangers grow ever greater as our interdependent global society relies on them ever more for running civilization's basic vital functions.

Parts II and III go on to describe the inner workings of the digital von Neumann type computer on a level accessible to the layperson, both hardware and software, one step at a time. This can serve as a useful introduction for the complete computer know-nothing.

Part IV, The Programmer's Trade, concludes the book with discussions of computers in the real world. These involve the inevitability of programming "bugs" and their weighty implications for society, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, and the limitations of the von Neumann architecture (interesting, Kohanski notes that the earliest machines employed parallel architecture. I don't know whether to be impressed by this; "parallelism" means different things to different people. Technically, simple instruction pipelining can be considered so.)

His last chapter, "Abstractions and Reflection", fulfills the book's philosophical perspective. He states, "...we do not really understand how we think. Much of the thinking process takes place at the subconscious level, where intuition, experience, and training combine without our being aware of it to produce a finished thought. A computer has only consciousness -- or what passes for it. In order to instruct a computer, we must first have reasoned out exactly what we intend it to do. None of our previous tools ever demanded that we examine and analyze the way we think to such a high degree, and for us this is a new and not very comfortable experience. Before the Computer Age, it was easier to overlook inconsistencies in our ideas and to compartmentalize our thoughts so as to ignore the contradictions among them...there is no going back to a more innocent time."

Food for thought, methinks.

This book has an interesting premise: the basic idea behind it is that there are a lot of books on HOW to program (e.g. how to write C++, how to write embedded systems, etc.) but not very many on what programming is all about in the first place. In other words, a lot of people focus on the "how" question but never the "what" or "why" questions. This focus makes this book unique.

One of the stated purposes of this book is to write a book that will be beneficial to both veteran programmers and English majors. Granted, that is a very difficult task, but I don't think this book was entirely successful at it; as a professional programmer I found much of the material to be too basic, but I get the impression that some of it would likely be too difficult for someone who doesn't already know something about programming.

With that said, as I said in the title of the review, there is still quite a bit to be praised about this book. While much of the book was review for me, it was still good to get the review and the author generally explains concepts well, although he sometimes oversimplifies concepts for the sake of the beginners reading the book.

The book made several important points that even professional programmers tend to neglect. He argues that all too often programmers forget about the effect their software has on real people and that many professional programmers need to pay more attention to how their software interacts with the real world.

He brings up, for example, the well-known case of the Therac-25, which was a radiation therapy machine in the 1980's that lead to the death of at least six patients; while I'm sure there were many problems with the machine, in one particularly egregious instance of bad programming was when the machine displayed "Malfunction 25." The technician overrode the error and kept going with the treatment; unfortunately for the patient, "Malfunction 25" meant "Radiation Overdose."

He also provides valuable background information on stuff like the evolution of programming languages. This is a lot more valuable than one might initially think; for example, it's one thing to learn COBOL but another thing to understand how and why it was developed in the first place and what the potential shortcomings of the design of the language itself is. It should be immediately obvious why this kind of information would be useful, and yet many people skip researching this kind of thing altogether.

In spite of the flaws mentioned above, this book was still worth reading overall.

When TPPRMM was reissued in paperback, it was retitled "Moths in the Machine: The Power and Perils of Programming." I assume the title change was prompted by criticism of the original title, which implied an emphasis on matters "philosophical". As other reviewers have noted, there is very little philosophy in this slim volume save for the author's brief musings, at the beginning and end of the book, on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of programming. Kohanski's observations on both scores are interesting, but not particularly deep. Far more interesting -- for the non-programmer -- are the middle chapters of TPPRMM, which present a useful overview of the programmer's craft (though not an introduction to programming per se). Kohanski also provides an excellent glossary of computer- and programming-related terminology. I doubt that experienced programmers would find much of use or interest in TPPRMM. For the rest of us, however, Kohanski has performed the valuable service of bringing a highly arcane subject matter a bit closer to our understanding. I am grateful to him for taking time away from his own programming efforts to do so.

After reading this book, i no longer look at any computer system or modern ultra sophisticated systems driven by computers as some brute magic of modern technology, but as a power of human thought and intellect amplified by the magnificient tool--the computer. i see the human face. thanks,Daniel Kohanski, for changing my former paradigm which was isolating me from the technology to one of embracing the technology by showing its human nature.

If you've heard the story of UNIVAC, and know why 7+4=B, this book will be mostly review. The material is well presented and would make a good Intro to Comp Sci textbook. "Old Pros" may also appreciate this refresher on the fundamentals of computer language & architecture. The tiny bit of philisophy at the end of this text belies its title. I was somewhat disappointed. YMMV.

The only reason I can find for Kirkus and Booklist falling all over themselves in praise for this book is the writing. The author is both a computer science and philosophy major; this combination does not a philosophical programmer make. The closest he comes is a stab at the psychology of computer programming. However, anyone writing in this area who excludes Gerald Weinberg from his bibliography is either clueless, short on time or just plain lazy.

when i read this book, i was struggling to understand what it meant to program. i had very little exposure to programming, but wanted to learn because i was curious. at some point, you have to figure out "okay, you have to write in a language, and then you need this compiler thing to actually make a program."

i don't imagine that this book would be too interesting for someone with a longstanding background in computer science, but it's very useful if you're just getting into the field. the book discusses the history of computing and talks about the fundamental concepts that allow you to understand programming -- bits and bytes, what compilers are and how they're used, and some basics of computational logic.

the book was written well and engagingly. it was a short read -- well worth the few hours.