Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 777.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
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[1] From: John Lavagnino <John.Lavagnino@kcl.ac.uk> (36)
Subject: Re: Tar pit (was: metaphorical autism?)
[2] From: "Yager, Susan F [ENGL]" <syager@iastate.edu> (33)
Subject: RE: 17.775 ancient Greek word formation? metaphorical
autism?
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 07:10:14 +0100
From: John Lavagnino <John.Lavagnino@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Tar pit (was: metaphorical autism?)
In 17.775 Willard wrote---
> Wegner's line of argument roughly coincides with Terry
> Winograd's, for what the latter calls "interaction
> design". Wegner says basically that the Turing Machine model of
> computing is transcended by the interaction machine model,
> quoting Alan Perlis's term, "Turing Tar-pit". (See the 54th of
> Perlis's Epigrams, "Beware of the Turing tar-pit in which
> everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy",
> http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/perlis-alan/quotes.html; those
> here who are not American may not detect the implicit reference
> to the La Brea Tar Pits, for which see
> http://www.tarpits.org/.)
I think the work that actually brought the tar-pit comparison into
computer science is actually the classic book by Frederick P. Brooks,
Jr.: The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
(Addison-Wesley, 1975). Chapter 1 is called "The Tar Pit", and has a
frontispiece depicting the La Brea Tar Pits; in the copy I bought in
the early 1980s this is on the front cover too. Chapter 1 starts like
this:
No scene from prehistory is quite so vivid as that of the mortal
struggles of great beasts in the tar pits. In the mind's eye one
sees dinosaurs, mammoths, and sabertoothed tigers struggling
against the grip of the tar. The fiercer the struggle, the more
entangling the tar, and no beast is so strong or so skillful but
that he ultimately sinks.
Large-system programming has over the past decade been such a tar
pit, and many great and powerful beasts have thrashed violently in
it. Most have emerged with running systems---few have met goals,
schedules, and budgets. Large and small, massive or wiry, team
after team has become entangled in the tar. No one thing seems to
cause the difficulty---any particular paw can be pulled away. But
the accumulation of simultaneous and interacting factors brings
slower and slower motion. Everyone seems to have been surprised by
the stickiness of the problem, and it is hard to discern the nature
of it. But we must try to understand it if we are to solve it.
John Lavagnino
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 07:10:46 +0100
From: "Yager, Susan F [ENGL]" <syager@iastate.edu>
Subject: RE: 17.775 ancient Greek word formation? metaphorical autism?
I am writing in response to the entry "posted Wednesday, April 7, from
which I quote:
"...Can anyone shed light on the non-medical occurrences of the word
[autism], e.g. on other domains of application?"
I have seen this word used to mean something like "willfully unaware" in a
discussion of politics, but cannot find the source. I did find this
reference to technology in a quick Lexis search:
Electronic News October 27, 2003
NPC: Universities Create Smart Devices for Connected Future
By Jessica Davis
"But the connections to the world are inadequate," he said, such as
sensors, actuators and displays/user interfaces. "We are autistic in this
way with an enormous amount of intelligence but not very good connections
to the world."
However, I am writing as the parent of a high-functioning autistic boy, to
urge you NOT to use this word in a metaphorical way, especially since such
metaphors perpetuate the early twentieth-century idea of autism as a form
of schizophrenia. Autism is now recognized as a spectrum of disorders.
Some people with autism may be unaware of their surroundings or lacking
"very good connections to the world," but many thousands are not; yet they
are autistic.
My request to you is not based on identity politics or social/political
"sensitivity." It is based on the fact that "autistic" does not now,
probably never did, correspond to the idea that the metaphors are trying to
convey. This perhaps needs no greater proof than the fact that my son
laughed at the post when he saw it this morning (though he agreed with me
that use of "autistic" metaphorically was also insulting). This evening he
asked whether I had written to you about this, saying, "Aren't you going to
tell them about ME?"
And so I have done so.
Sincerely,
Susan Yager
Assoc. Professor, English
Iowa State University
Ames, IA
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