The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Various
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(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!" _________________________________________________________________ Node:Anthropomorphization, Next:[110]Comparatives, Previous:[111]Spoken Inarticulations, Up:[112]Jargon Construction 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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