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The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Various
page 28 of 1403 (01%)
(interestingly, the same sorts of constructions have been showing up
with increasing frequency in comic strips). Another expression
sometimes heard is "Complain!", meaning "I have a complaint!"
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Anthropomorphization

Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish
tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software. English purists
and academic computer scientists frequently look down on others for
anthropomorphizing hardware and software, considering this sort of
behavior to be characteristic of naive misunderstanding. But most
hackers anthropomorphize freely, frequently describing program
behavior in terms of wants and desires.

Thus it is common to hear hardware or software talked about as though
it has homunculi talking to each other inside it, with intentions and
desires. Thus, one hears "The protocol handler got confused", or that
programs "are trying" to do things, or one may say of a routine that
"its goal in life is to X". One even hears explanations like "... and
its poor little brain couldn't understand X, and it died." Sometimes
modelling things this way actually seems to make them easier to
understand, perhaps because it's instinctively natural to think of
anything with a really complex behavioral repertoire as `like a
person' rather than `like a thing'.

At first glance, to anyone who understands how these programs actually
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