A quick post about coding

 

What coding really is.

It's been called "pure thought stuff". Indeed. Everything that is coded into a machine and executed is made out of fairy dust. You may ask: What do you mean by that? Fairy dust here means that there's nothing definite about any of it. It's not made of anything material, it cannot be held or touched. Only its effects can be observed.

A thought doesn't exist in the material world. If you were to make something in the material world, then your thoughts brought it about. But the thoughts themselves are not material things. Consequently, something like a computer program, does not exist in the material world. Only what it does to affect the world can be made observable. It is utterly intangible.

It is indeed a strange thing to contemplate. So many things that can be observed, in which humans have affected, have come about by somebody's thoughts. Those thoughts cannot be seen, measured, nor observed. Only the effects on the world can be seen, measured, or observed.

Coding is made of human thoughts. It's existence can never make it into the material world, but it sure can have an effect upon the material world. Indeed, human thought has done a lot to shape the modern world, and these effects are becoming more and more in evidence. But the thoughts that made by these effects can not be observed.  Perhaps a machine can be made that can read somebody's thoughts.  But that isn't really reading one's thoughts.  It is can only observe what happens inside a human's brain, which is a material object.

Funny how people cannot believe in an unseen God, but have no choice but to believe in things that cannot be seen nor observed--such as ones thoughts. You believe in what you cannot see, and you do it every day.

Anyway, coding is a virtual world in itself. The effects of coding can be thought of as a virtual machine. You can tinker with this code until the code "works". Unless this code is put into position so that it can effect the outside material world, it is harmless. But it could indeed become quite dangerous. It may already be dangerous.

So why do any coding? Well, a person has to eat. Good code is worth something. But it doesn't know morality. Only people who use it, can use it in good ways--or evil. And so it goes.