Object-Oriented Programming Requires Good Epistemology

Posted by Scott Hughes Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:29:00 GMT

When I first started reading about the Objectivist theory of concept-formation, I got really interested in the possible crossover between people who actively practice good mental integration and the folks who enjoy designing a polished object-oriented (OO) API. Building a new concept by finding the commonalities between a couple of referrents and omitting the specific measurements is exactly the kind of exercise an object-oriented programmer is very familiar with. The measurement-omission step of concept-formation is identical to the process used by an OO programmer to identify the necessary “instance variables” of a given class. A good OO programmer is going to practice the same principles of unit-economy that makes real-world concepts useful, so that we can integrate an unlimited amount of data using a finite amount of symbols.

Any actual OO compiler is going to limit your expressiveness to only very simple forms of composition and inheritance, which is unfortunate in that you’ll hit roadblocks often when trying to model real-world relationships… But also very fortunate in that it saves me a lot of typing. So I wouldn’t say that an OO programmer could breeze through an epistemology book, though he would have a good head start.

It does seem to me that it would be easy to get an Objectivist doing OO design. If they were missing a background in math and algorithms, it might be tough to get them writing real code but they could still likely handle a high-level OO Architect position. This idea has held up pretty well given the high number of computer scientists you meet at Objectivist gatherings. Most of my close friends who are Objectivists (including my wife) are also programmers. I suppose that ratio is weighted since I will tend toward making friends who are smart and work in a similar field.

As a corollary, I found out (thanks to Harry Binswanger’s wonderful mailing list) that Grady Booch, chief scientist at Rational Software and co-creator of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), actually cites Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology in his book Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. I don’t know to what extent Rand was an influence (I’d assume it’s possible that both Rand and Booch were equally influenced by Aristotle, et al, on the theories of categories/classification), but it’s interesting to see another computer scientist (a well-known one even) credit the Objectivist theory of epistemology.

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Immigration

Posted by Scott Hughes Thu, 13 Apr 2006 04:16:00 GMT

Since I was away on vacation, I missed some of the details about these local protests (rallies?) against this latest immigration bill. I suppose the big issue is the provision to make it a felony act to be in the country without the proper paperwork. And I have to agree with the protesters: It is ridiculous to consider hard-working “Americans-in-spirit” as felons… And I’m more scared than anybody else when it comes to the idea of putting up a Berlin Wall between the US and Mexico. I’ve always been a supporter of open immigration, but thanks to Harry Binswanger, there’s now a good paper in defense of open immigration covering all of the important points. For example, on the claim that open immigration would cause overcrowding:

Take an extreme example. Suppose a tidal wave of immigrants came here. Suppose that half of the people on the planet moved here. That would mean an unthinkable eleven-fold increase in our population–from 300 million to 3.3 billion people. That would make America almost as “densely” populated as today’s England (360 people/sq. km. vs. 384 people/sq. km.). In fact, it would make us less densely populated than the state of New Jersey (453 per sq. km.). And these calculations exclude Alaska, Hawaii, and counts only land area.

And contrary to widespread beliefs, high population density is a value not a disvalue. High population density intensifies the division of labor, which makes possible a wider variety of jobs and specialized consumer products. For instance, in Manhattan, there is a “doll hospital”–a store specializing in the repair of children’s dolls. Such a store and the many specialized, niche businesses require a high population density to have a market. Try finding a doll hospital in Poughkeepsie. In Manhattan, one can find a job as a Pilates Method teacher or as a “Secret Shopper” (2 jobs actually listed on Craig’s List). Not in Paducah.

I know that I, for one, would love to be able to afford to move into an even denser part of downtown Dallas than where I currently live… But more importantly, I welcome hard-working, freedom-loving individuals of any nationality (regardless of their paperwork status) to live in my neighborhood.

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