How many people actually know how to use a computer though? In my experience, most people can not use computers effectively; I.e., they can’t install arbitrary programs (with notable examples being OSes and drivers), they don’t understand the basic abstractions (e.g., the filesystem) well, they can’t use CLI apps (which severely limits what tools they can use, and is not a skill that only programmers need), … . They basically want to use the computer like it’s an iPhone.
The general trend has been to make computers user-friendly, and to hide the complexity from the user. On one hand, this has been helpful for their diffusion, and I’m sure it benefited a lot of people in a lot of ways (besides making a lot of money). If I think of my parents, for instance, I can’t believe they would have ever started to use computers had they been more complicated.
On the other hand, this might be the fundamental obstacle in the way of coding literacy. To do stuff in the modern world, you actually have to know how to read and write. To use computers, you don’t need to know how to program (at the level that most people use them). If computers keep getting more intuitive, interactive and user friendly, why should people feel the need to understand them?
(One could imagine a future where technology is so attuned to people’s intentions, they can just think, gesture or say what they want, and the machine provides; as a result, they lose interest in reading and writing, and a new dark age of illiteracy begins).
How many people actually know how to use a computer though? In my experience, most people can not use computers effectively; I.e., they can’t install arbitrary programs (with notable examples being OSes and drivers), they don’t understand the basic abstractions (e.g., the filesystem) well, they can’t use CLI apps (which severely limits what tools they can use, and is not a skill that only programmers need), … . They basically want to use the computer like it’s an iPhone.
The general trend has been to make computers user-friendly, and to hide the complexity from the user. On one hand, this has been helpful for their diffusion, and I’m sure it benefited a lot of people in a lot of ways (besides making a lot of money). If I think of my parents, for instance, I can’t believe they would have ever started to use computers had they been more complicated.
On the other hand, this might be the fundamental obstacle in the way of coding literacy. To do stuff in the modern world, you actually have to know how to read and write. To use computers, you don’t need to know how to program (at the level that most people use them). If computers keep getting more intuitive, interactive and user friendly, why should people feel the need to understand them?
(One could imagine a future where technology is so attuned to people’s intentions, they can just think, gesture or say what they want, and the machine provides; as a result, they lose interest in reading and writing, and a new dark age of illiteracy begins).