> Isn't it kind of daft that we humans must go through years of training to learn esoteric languages and ways of bending our brains backwards in order to tell a computer how to perform arguably simple tasks?
I always took it in another way: learning to program a computer is an enlightening, visceral experience highlighting just how bad natural language and normal modes of thinking suck. They're heavily optimized for reality in which the most important thing was managing social dynamics in small groups, and beliefs were good or bad depending on how close they are to what everyone else beliefs. Whether or not they were true at object level did not matter at all.
We live in different times now. There's a demand for clear, logical, precise thinking. The very thinking we're not well-equipped for by default. The very thinking you call "bending our brains backwards". Because object-level truth matters much more now, there are consequences for getting things wrong - such as countless of ways of getting scammed by people who are better at this than you are.
Not to mention, this "bending our brains backwards" is what gives humanity superpowers. It's what gave us all the technology we enjoy today - energy, transportation, amenities, communication, entertainment. Building and maintaining these things requires precise thinking and precise communications. So, until a super-human AI takes all that over for us (and effectively turns out into NPCs in our own story), glorifying the natural, human mode of communication is just self-handicapping.
I always took it in another way: learning to program a computer is an enlightening, visceral experience highlighting just how bad natural language and normal modes of thinking suck. They're heavily optimized for reality in which the most important thing was managing social dynamics in small groups, and beliefs were good or bad depending on how close they are to what everyone else beliefs. Whether or not they were true at object level did not matter at all.
We live in different times now. There's a demand for clear, logical, precise thinking. The very thinking we're not well-equipped for by default. The very thinking you call "bending our brains backwards". Because object-level truth matters much more now, there are consequences for getting things wrong - such as countless of ways of getting scammed by people who are better at this than you are.
Not to mention, this "bending our brains backwards" is what gives humanity superpowers. It's what gave us all the technology we enjoy today - energy, transportation, amenities, communication, entertainment. Building and maintaining these things requires precise thinking and precise communications. So, until a super-human AI takes all that over for us (and effectively turns out into NPCs in our own story), glorifying the natural, human mode of communication is just self-handicapping.