The Codeless Code: Case 228 The Trembling Giant
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After one of master Kaimu’s lectures, a monk approached the
master and said: I am bored of this endless talk of coding
practices, of tools and techniques. It is said you know much
about artificial intelligence—say something about that.
Kaimu grabbed the monk in a headlock, held a knife to his
ear, and said: Let me cut away these useless appendages,
that you might see more clearly.
When the monk begged the master to let fall his knife, Kaimu
answered: I cannot, for it is you that holds it. But since
you wish to keep your two ears, tell me what you will part
with instead—two kidneys, two lungs, or two gallons of
blood?
The monk cried: Mercy! I would part with none of these!
Kaimu said: Yet I would leave you your excellent brain! And
excellent it must be, if my lectures can provide it only
boredom! Very well, I shall take two inches of your neck...
As Kaimu pressed the knife into his flesh, the monk said:
This is madness! What good is my brain without my body?
Kaimu laughed and asked: What good is a rule engine without
code to implement it, interfaces to query it, databases to
keep its store of knowledge, or operating systems to make it
all run? And whence comes all this code?
The monk considered this and said dutifully: I should not
seek to build brains until I master the ears.
Kaimu scowled and said: Foolish boy, you are the ears, and
the eyes, and the hands—one pair each of uncounted millions.
You and I labor day after day, year after year, building and
debugging little bits of code—on platforms that are
themselves made of code—until the code we create is wired to
the code created by our fellows, and our temple’s code
speaks to the code of a hundred other temples—sometimes
directly, sometimes subtly, through eyes that move minds
that move mouths that move ears that move other minds to
move other hands to write even more code—and so on and so
on, node upon node, link upon link, splayed out in a vast,
ethereal nervous system that covers this world and has begun
to reach beyond...
The master’s eyes darted around, and he continued in a low
voice:
When we do our work poorly, we are replaced with our
betters. When we do our work well, the thing we have built
grows larger, faster, more powerful, more entrenched, more
hungry. Sometimes I lie awake in a cold sweat, unable to
decide if we are still building it, or if it has begun using
us to build itself...
