{"id":1248,"date":"2008-07-30T22:18:36","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T02:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2008-07-30T22:18:36","modified_gmt":"2008-07-31T02:18:36","slug":"computational-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/30\/computational-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Computational Processes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this very interesting quote in an article on Information Software and the Graphical Interface<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer\u2019s idea of a spirit. It cannot be seen or touched. It is not composed of matter at all. However, it is very real. It can perform intellectual work. It can answer questions<\/strong>. It can affect the world<\/strong> by disbursing money at a bank or by controlling a robot arm in a factory. The programs we use to conjure processes are like a sorcerer\u2019s spells.<\/p>\n

\u2014Abelson and Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs<\/a> (1984)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How very true!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found this very interesting quote in an article on Information Software and the Graphical Interface: A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer\u2019s idea of a spirit. It cannot be seen or touched. It is not composed of matter at all. However, it is very real. It can perform intellectual work. It can… Continue reading Computational Processes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-1248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-software","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-k8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/08\/10\/mozilla-2-firefox-thunderbird\/","url_meta":{"origin":1248,"position":0},"title":"Mozilla \/2 = Firefox + Thunderbird","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"As a strong supporter of open-source thingies, I've been using Mozilla pretty much ever since it went to version 1.0 way back when. 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