Post Syndicated from The Codeless Code original http://thecodelesscode.com/case/228

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…