Once upon a time, long ago, there was a company of Lisp programmers. It was so long ago, in fact, that Lisp had no macros. Anything that couldn’t be defined with a function or done with a special operator had to be written in full every time, which was rather a drag. Unfortunately, the programmers in this company—though brilliant—were also quite lazy. Often in the middle of their programs—when the tedium of writing a bunch of code got to be too much—they would instead write a note describing the code they needed to write at that place in the program (italics mine).

And so it is that your blogger sheepishly reminds you that some of his own abstractions can leak Yes, drip, drip, drip, one drop—or one line of code or prose—at a time 💧 💧💧

Your Blogger Comes To Grips With (His Very Own) Leaky Abstractions

Here’s what I mean by my somewhat enigmatic remark above about leaky abstractions: As someone who lives and breathes technology—lately focused on designing and implementing distributed systems—the relevant concepts from the field permeate my thinking. So please don’t be too surprised if, every now and then in my essays, I pluck a metaphor or two from my field to illustrate any given point better 😲

Having sounded those civilized notes of polite diffidence, allow me to bring in Joel Spolsky’s nice take on leaky abstractions. Yep, we’ll be in abstraction central for just a bit, though not too long, so don’t you run away yet!

In the same book I mentioned above—in his stellar book entitled Practical Common Lisp—in section entitled “Plugging the Leaks:, the author (Seibel) mentions Spolsky’s original work by telling the reader how

In his essay “The Law of Leaky Abstractions,” Joel Spolsky coined the term leaky abstraction to describe an abstraction that “leaks” details it’s supposed to be abstracting away. Since writing a macro is a way of creating an abstraction, you need to make sure your macros don’t leak needlessly.

The Challenge Of Covering The Rich Content

I soon came to the conclusion that Plato and the Nerd is way too richly packed with innovative ideas—all of the first order — that trying to convey the thing would simply be futile. The logical conclusion I arrived at was that—short of writing a whole book to describe the purport and wherewithal of it—a collage format would perhaps work the best.

Here I’m reminded me of a book that is of the same caliber, although far more technical: The Nature of Computation (Oxford). It pulls no punches—I mean, it’s literally filled to overflowing with the most marvelous mathematics I’ve seen in ages!

So it’s no wonder that several luminaries of our field have been equally wowed by that unprecedented work of Moore and Mertens—here’s just one rave review:

To put it bluntly: this book rocks! It’s 900+ pages of awesome. It somehow manages to combine the fun of a popular book with the intellectual heft of a textbook, so much so that I don’t know what to call it (but whatever the genre is, there needs to be more of it!).
~ Scott Aaronson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 🚅

The reason I dragged in mention of that other stellar book—The Nature of Computation—is that my sentiments regarding Plato and the Nerd are much the same: I find myself resonating with Aaronson’s comment above, which I apply without hesitation to Plato and the Nerd by saying that it, too, “…somehow manages to combine the fun of a popular book with the intellectual heft of a textbook, so much so that I don’t know what to call it (but whatever the genre is, there needs to be more of it!).”

Enough said ⛳

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
~ Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet)

An Inspired Collage 🎪

In what follows, wherever I use the word “technologist”, feel free to replace it by the word engineer—for those not yet familiar my background, please know that your blogger is as much a software craftsman 👓 (that being his professional background for 22-plus years) as an engineer 🔧 (earned both his BSEE and MSEE degrees with focus throughout the training on the science and strategy of mastering computing, culminating in a dissertation involving Artificial Intelligence algorithms) as an artist 🎻 (entirely self-taught after having been smitten by the allure of painting with prose when he was a high school freshman) 📕 📗 📘

Are We Ready To Embrace Complementarity?

So here we might find reflections of ourselves in the pic above 👧 👦  Inebriated by the exuberance of creativity and armed with nothing more than, in the words of Plato and the Nerd, the “models and abstractions to build inventive artificial worlds and [in the process] give us incredible capabilities”, we face one another in our selfsame innocence—she (technology) 👧  a boundlessly fertile though sometimes demure canvas on which to sketch our ideas while he (technologist) 👦 ever-ready with overtures and equally determined for revelation and sweet progress. The burning question I have for all of us is, “Are we ready, truly ready, to embrace complementarity?”

End Of The Innocence Or Can We Co-evolve?

The evanescent butterfly has finally alighted on a solitary flower (technology) 🌻 which serves as a richly protean and metamorphosing source of nectar; the butterfly (technologist) 🐝 is the seeker, a protagonist of sorts, eager for symbiosis and becoming one with the flower in an act of selfsame melding. The question I have is, “Will this mark the end of the innocence, with the two—the flower and the butterfly—giving up their respective secrets or are both up to snuff to knowingly retain their dignity, their honor, and to co-evolve?”

Surely Not A Faustian Bargain?

And here we are, face-to-face with the unblinking, all-knowing, steely stare of a cat—the cat (technology) 🐈  dug into her steely mirthlessness, zealously guarding the gates of discovery, and we (technologists) 👕 equally eager to prove to her that we have the endurance and pluck to stand our ground. Indeed, we (technologists) 👕  will not settle for anything less than the best we can get out of the cat (technology) 🐈  on our road to discovery 🚧

But first, in full disclosure, and several of you already know this: I’m an inveterate cat-lover 🐱 So take this next question with a grain of salt and a whisker 🐱

Now, in the marvelous words of Plato and the Nerd, “…the layers of paradigms for software are so deep that the physical world largely becomes irrelevant; that software reflects the personalities and idiosyncrasies of its creators…”. And the question I have for all of us is, notwithstanding those for whom the inevitable mishaps and mistakes made along the path of pursuing technology are sour grapes, “Surely what we’ve got here is more—hopefully much more—than a Faustian bargain?” 🍇

Can We Wrest The Next Generation Away From Distractions?

We have a suitcase of knowledge to unpack, and a classroom full of empty chairs to fill; but with whom? Where are our learners? How do we wrest them from a world that’s awash with distractions? How do we engage them with the passion to take on the quest of taming technology even as it co-evolves with us? Plato and the Nerd has much, much more to say on this than there is space in the essay to cover.

But the related question I have is, “What can we do to nudge the next generation of (hopefully would-be) learners in the direction of distraction-free concentration that enables their intellects to grow?” 🍎

The night sky is charged with the swirl of miasmic fumes billowing out of factory stacks. We have layer upon layer of an enmeshed industrial complex. As we turn to discern the counterparts of this layering in the digital world, let’s harken to these sublimely melded thoughts from Plato and the Nerd where Edward tells us—in the lead-in to Chapter 4 Hardware Is Ephemeral—how “…hardware is soft, a transient expression of ideas, and those ideas are more durable than the hardware itself. And in which I trace the layered paradigms that make possible digital machines made with billions of transistors.”

We can also get caught up in a paradigm shift or two—maybe more, given the ever-accelerating pace of innovation—in our lifetime. Again in the words of Plato and the Nerd 🏢

…Paradigm shifts are difficult for humans… Software that supports design, such as hardware description languages and their compilers, may have to be redesigned with significant paradigm shifts. Even manufacturing plants may have to change (italics mine)

To the deep observtions above, I add a more pedestrian one 👺

Shift happens
~ Popular saying

And the question I have for all of us to ponder is twofold here, (1) “Is it actually true, as is commonly assumed, that the progress of science has us marching ineluctably toward some Platonic truth?” and (2) “If that assumption is ill-founded, what are the costs of living in a fool’s paradise where one merely slips and slides to no avail?” 🍌

Anyone remember singer-songwriter, guitarist Mark Knopfler (of the British music group Dire Straits) singing the deeply symbolic, poignant, and classic song Telegraph Road? 🚕 🚗 🚙 🚚 🚛🚓

And my radio says tonight it’s gonna freeze
People driving home from the factories
There’s six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow 🚕 🚗 🚙 

I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I’ve got a right to go to work but there’s no work here to be found
Yes, and they say we’re gonna have to pay what’s owed
We’re gonna have to reap from some seed that’s been sowed 🌱 🌿 🍁

From all of these signs saying “sorry but we’re closed”
All the way down the Telegraph Road🚦🚧🚫

With those soulful Dire Straits lyrics having filled our senses, shall we move on to the remaining two questions?

Do I Have The Courage To Plant My Flag In An Open Field?

Pause for a few moments and please take in the meandering road in the pic above. Is what you see just that, an ordinary and prosaic path that leads somewhere? Or can we let our imagination soar—with Plato and the Nerd at our side to give our imagination wings with which to soar—above the ordinary, flying for a few fleeting moments perhaps? Can we wonder, too, alongside the essayist Anais Nin when she had pondered whether

Real wonder lies in the depths; as soon as you look deeply you find the extraordinary.
~ Mirages, pg. 335 The Quotable Anais Nin: 365 Quotations with Citations (Sky Blue Press)

Plant your flag in an open field!
No more timid peeking around.

Either you see the beloved,
or you lose your head!

The real truth of existence is sealed,
until after many twists and turns of the road.

As in the algebraical method of “the two errors,”
the correct answer comes only after two substitutions,
after two mistakes. Then the seeker says,

“If I had known the real way it was,
I would have stopped all the looking around.”
But that knowing depends
on the time spent looking!
~ Jelaluddin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi—HarperCollins)

Onward.

Are We Willing To Suspend Our Judgment?

The girl in her backyard looks deeply into the far horizon. What do you think she sees? Do we sense her seeing a horizon suffused with hope, or one with dread? And here I turn to what is probably the most delicious chapter in all of Plato and the Nerd—Chapter 10 Determinism—which dives into some truly elegant considerations of a set of terrific topics such as that of how

“…determinism is a property of models not of the physical world; that determinism is an extremely valuable property, one that has historically delivered considerable payoffs in engineering and science…” and the topic of how “…nondeterministic models, used explicitly and judiciously, play an essential role in engineering.”

Great stuff in there! 🎁

Before I even pose the next question, it would help we find ourselves in agreement with the notion that we need—and need it compellingly so—systematic ways to handle uncertainty. All good there? So I see you nodding your head in affirmation. That is awesome! 🍭 So here we go: The question I have for us to ponder here is, “Are we willing to suspend judgment and be receptive to the idea that the very concept of “determinism” is a subtle one, in fact every bit as subtle as the notion of “free will” itself?” 🍄

Those who know me well for digressing at the drop of a hat, let me assure all those buddies of mine. You all, please bear with me and listen up for just a sec: The question I posed above is, it truly is, a far cry from building castles in the air. Yes Sir! 👱 and Yes Madam! 👰 I kid you not. These are questions that fuel the passion of those of us who love building—nay, crafting—and evolving software with the same love and energy as we bring with us when tending to our tenderest and fondest plants in the garden.

Yes, this is pragmatism writ large. With that, I will digress no more 🚫  Secretly, though—especially when you all are not looking—Quoth the Blogger “Evermore” 😉

Whoa, what’s that you say, dear Reader? Let’s see if I got this one right…

• Reader said: Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 🌚
• Blogger said: Ooh la la, so the blogger gets a dose of his own medicine! Surely this day was coming, he should’ve foretold 👻
• Reader said: Eavesdropping stealth led us to hear, Quoth the Blogger “Evermore” 😱
• Blogger said: Oops, um, well, the story will now have to be retold 🐙

This all eerily reminds me of the haunting lyrics of the ethereal song Empty Garden by piano virtuoso Elton John who—along with Kishore Kumar and Mark Knopfler—is one of my all-time favorite singers. So in that angst ridden song Empty Garden, we hear Elton John soulfully and wistfully wondering as to

What happened here
As the New York sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden among the flagstones there
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks strange 🌘

And what’s it for
This little empty garden by the brownstone door
And in the cracks along the sidewalk nothing grows no more
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And we are so amazed we’re crippled and we’re dazed
A gardener like that one no one can replace 🌿

And through their tears
Some say he farmed his best in younger years
But he’d have said that roots grow stronger if only he could hear
Who lived there
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
Now we pray for rain, and with every drop that falls
We hear, we hear your name 🍁

Johnny can’t you come out to play in your empty garden 🏠

One more time: onward!

Shall We Cross The Chasm?

Are we truly ready to cross the chasm? Are we really? Do we have the wherewithal to bridge the two worlds, one of the humanities and the other of engineering and the sciences?

In the delectable words of Plato and the Nerd below, can we, too, be like Steven Connor—professor of modern literature and theory at Birkbeck, University of London—when he finds these amazing essences under surfaces?

Connor finds allusions in Serres’ writings to an astonishing array of oppositions between hard and soft, including body and language, science and humanities, things and signs, physical and conceptual, object and idea, form and information, physics and language, a stone and a ghost, motors and information theory, the manual and the digital, sound and meaning, bridge and hyphen, energy and information, flesh and word, the real and the virtual, forces and codes, solids and geometry, objective and subjective, war and religion, a book and a story, or sound and music (italics mine).

The question I have is, “Are we prepared to take that most difficult step where we make the transition between visionaries and pragmatists?” 🐚

Do We Have The Will To Marshal Technology Into Serving Humanity?

Are we merely spectators by the side of the stage of life? Will we content ourselves with watching passersby in the hubbub of life? Are we, indeed, lending credence to the observation of Alan Perlis when he had wondered aloud the following thought?

Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to see it as a soap bubble?

Or can we rise up to the occasion as our present times warrant? And the question I have here is simply this, “Is there truly something deeper going on that’s eluding us at the moment?” 🌱

There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
~ Buffalo Springfield (Lyrics from For What It’s Worth)

Neither do we want to be in the predicament that Buffalo Springfield was describing above nor do we wish to contemplate the uncomfortably 🌋  numb situation—yes, that was not 🐌  a typo you all, though I do proffer profuse apologies to fellow Pink Floyd fans—and be compelled to echo these hauntingly angst-ridden refrains, saying with perhaps a primal scream how 😱

I’ve got amazing powers of observation
And that is how I know 🔮
I’ve got a strong urge to fly
But I’ve got nowhere to fly to 🐥
~ Pink Floyd (Lyrics from Nobody Home)

Maybe it’s my seeking solace in the unifying comfort of Nature that leads me to express my wish that I’d rather walk away from the situation painted in the starkly visceral lyrics above and instead contemplate a halcyon future such as the one that the music group Hootie & The Blowfish was getting at in a song when they had enthused how 🌊

With a little love, and some tenderness
We’ll walk upon the water
We’ll rise above this mess
With a little peace, and some harmony
We’ll take the world together
We’ll take ’em by the hand 💖
~ Hootie & The Blowfish (Lyrics from Hold My Hand)

Can Creative Aspects Of Technology Development Restore Our Humanity?

Are we being inexorable sucked into the insatiable vortex of technology? Will we be mercilessly swallowed whole and chewed by its automaton maw? Is the relentless march of technology inherently dehumanizing? Or is there a point of return? In fact, on a far more positive note, hope springing eternal in the human breast—all the while reminding you of my own decidedly non-Panglossian-realist credentials as well—my mind turns to ponder whether the creative aspects of technology development restore our humanity to us?

So the question I have is, “Will the creative aspects of technology development restore our very humanity to us so we can stave off a future where even conceiving its once-dehumanizing aspects would be an alien thought?” 🌿

In the bold and intriguing words of Plato and the Nerd

… that technology development is a fundamentally creative human activity driven by culture and aesthetics and built on models that are human fabrications much more than discovered natural laws. Only the difficulty of making this case makes writing this book difficult (italics mine).

Can we reinvigorate our humanism to the point where we trust our powers of creativity to feel emboldened enough to resonate with the vision that Richard Feynman—one of my heroes in science by the way—had in mind when he had remarked, “Don’t look up the answer; just figure it out. After all, it’s only nature; she can’t beat you. If you think hard enough, you’ll figure it out“, as quoted in The Quotable Feynman (Princeton University Press)?

Can We Predict Where The Primrose Path Will Lead Us?

And finally…

Where does the primrose path lead us? Is it a walk in the orchard? Does the path beckon the caller to a rosier, greener pasture? Or are we looking at a frosty future, such as the mirthless one symbolized by the snow-capped mountains over yonder in the pic above? As we peer into that phantasmagoric pic, might we wonder along with Anais Nin whether

Judgment 🏆

I kept thinking to myself—on my first reading of the book so far, anyway—”What is there to not like about Plato and the Nerd?” So if you enjoy surfing—and diving deep—into the ocean of ideas that are at once profound and pragmatic, at times Platonic, and occasionally phlegmatic, then you simply can’t go wrong with this book 🏄

I love this rarest-of-rare books 💕 Don’t you miss it. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Edward having the guts to take on such an ambitious goal—taking on a deep exploration, in a comprehensive and engaging style, of some of the deepest, most crucial, undeniably vital, and burning technological-societal issues that our world faces—and then pulling it off as successfully as he has 🏆

I simply don’t have the wherewithal to convey the gravitas of Plato and the Nerd; for that, you’ll need to head over to your nearest bricks-and-mortar bookstore—in fact, I strongly encourage you to patronize and support the vestige of the remaining bricks-and-mortar bookstores lest they, too, get overrun by the juggernaut of online bookstores and thereby go the way of the dodo. Grab a copy of the book and find everything out for your own self; you won’t regret it 💁

Anything profounder than what you’ll find in the pages of Plato and the Nerd could only transcend into the realm of the spiritual 💭 💨 💭 💨 💭

I’m in the mood, I’m in the mood, I’m in the mood
I can write it on the door – I can put it on the floor
I can do anything that you want me for
If you want me to

I can do it right – I can do it wrong
‘Cause a matter of fact it’ll turn out to be strong
If you want me to
~ Robert Plant (Lyrics from In The Mood)

Far be it from me to nominate a book for The Pulitzer Prize—for starters, I’m not exactly qualified to do so, hard-core software practitioner that I am—but if I could nominate just one book… Just floating an idea, just floatin’ 🎈

Aha, so in the pic above, we find my copy of The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us (The MIT Press) by Noson S. Yanofsky—bedecked in an ebony dust jacket that’s rather lovely and all the fashion—basking in sunshine outside the Gates Dell Complex (GDC) on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin 🎓

The GDC, of course, is home to the computer science department. As to what my copy of The Outer Limits of Reason is doing outside GDC is a longish story that would lead us far afield from our essay. Hmm…

Maybe not that much. Okay, look for when that all resurfaces in a future essay right here on this blog 🎃

Wait a second, as for the pic below, what in the world is it doing here? Hmm… Possibly a dangling pointer from the draft of the previous essay on the Deep Learning area in Artificial Intelligence. Zombie processes notwithstanding—I don’t about you, but I sure don’t fancy ghosts and ghouls—so help me here, won’t you? 👻

Epilogue 👺

An End Or A Beginning?

Lest any of you Programming Digressions readers thought that this essay was the end, please hold on to this thought: This is only the beginning. So everyone let’s line up now—on the 30-yard line on the American football gridiron—for the first down 🏈  And speaking of endings and beginnings, I harken back to what we read earlier on, in this very essay, by way of the profound observation that

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

~ Sir Winston Churchill (“The End of the Beginning” in Winston Churchill War Speeches Collection Book 3)

So do please take a little time to allow the observation above to sink in 🐳

And what I meant by the admittedly enigmatic thought above—that “This is only the beginning“—is simply this: Stay tuned for a second installment of this essay on Plato and the Nerd. You got it, a second, follow up essay 🍒  Though doing such a thing might strike some as gratuitous at first blush, since it’s only the rarest-of-rare essays on this blog that is ever devoted to a single book—let alone two essays devoted to a single book—let me assure you that my decision to devote two full essays to Plato and the Nerd (this one and an upcoming essay) is fully meditated.

On The Horizon Of Programming Digressions

Outlandish though it might first appears—you’re thinking, “Akram, what in the world are you going to have to write about yet another essay on Plato and the Nerd?—allow me to comfort you in the thought that I’m confident you won’t be disappointed👌 Can we settle on that for now? 🐣

As a matter of fact, I already have way too many ideas percolating in my head for that very essay, some of which I’ve actually managed to scribble down 🎳 And no, it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the fine game of bowling, though methinks we were chatting about the American football gridiron metaphor (the 30-yard line and a new set of downs) just a short while ago 🏉  Oops, not rugby—that would be too brutal to even mention here—I meant the gentlemanly, good old full-contact sport that is American football, yay 🏈

To all that I’ll simply add that Plato and the Nerd touches upon a ton of fundamental themes which have resonated with your blogger over the years; just tons and tons. Ah, I can smell the roses 🌹 So you all, I invite you to stay tuned for a future essay in which we’ll explore a bunch of the themes that have been beautifully tackled in Plato and the Nerd, all in the context of how those themes connect, in turn, with yet another set of themes that you’re probably quite familiar with already. Methinks that you, too, will find that future digression intriguing 🌿

Meanwhile, I wish to share some words wherein I find delicious inspiration 🍩

Good mathematicians see analogies between theorems or theories, but the very best ones see analogies between analogies (italics mine)
~ Stefan Banach (Polish mathematician), as recounted by his friend Stanislaw Ulam, in turn quoted by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander in their fantastic book entitled Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking (Basic Books)

Hmm… Mention of Douglas Hofstadter reminds me—and more details in an essay elsewhere—that someone here did win The Pulitzer Prize, and very justifiably of course (for their monumentally important book entitled Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Basic Books) while someone hasn’t yet won that Prize… Just floating an idea, just floatin’ 🎈

Only connect!
That was the whole of her sermon.
Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted,
And human love will be seen at its height.
Live in fragments no longer.
Only connect…
~ E.M. Forster (Howards End)

Fellow intrepid explorers, while I sense your understandable suspense—doing my best here to both empathize and sympathize, though not necessarily in that order—please know that your blogger isn’t entirely stone-hearted either ❤ Come on, you all. As a matter of fact, even the merge suggestion such as that would leave me broken-hearted. Ouch, that would hurt 💔

And so it is that I hasten to give you a clue here which harbors telltale signs plus a foretaste of things to come in a future essay: This Epilogue itself finds itself sandwiched between two pics that will be reappearing in the second installment of this essay on Plato and the Nerd. Enough said. Now you all stay tuned 📺

Collage of Pics and Lyrics 🎸

It’s time to come away, my Darling Pretty
It’s time to come away on the changing tide
Time to come away, Darling Pretty
And I need you darling by my side 🌻

Cast away the chains, Darling Pretty
Cast away the chains away behind
Take away my pain, my Darling Pretty
And the chains that once were yours and mine 🐉

There will come a day, Darling Pretty
There will come a day when hearts can fly
Love will find a way, my Darling Pretty
Find a heaven for you and I
Love will find a way, my Darling Pretty
Find a heaven for you and I 🌈
~ Mark Knopfler (Lyrics from Darling Pretty)