>Technology and the consequences of using technology are inherently highly political.
So what stance does The Art of Computer Programming take on communism?
So what stance does The Art of Computer Programming take on communism?
I asked about the book. Everything is inherently HIGHLY political, thus this should be an easy question.
However, yes, some people would say that, for example, almost everything is political to some degree. I don’t know if I agree with them entirely. In case of Knuth, they would probably say that the choice of what to write about in the book (just like the choice of whether to be a computer scientist in the first place) cannot be divorced from his politics. Like the choice of someone to work in nuclear science or environmental science or “anything that pays good money” is informed by individual’s political positions. “Politics is water” is a great metaphor.
But a bit more serious there are different angles to this:
One is that the formalization Knuth did, is basis for the way other research on computer science has been setup.
His work on TeX as part of writing the books has great impact on how scientific reports are being written, which themselves have consequences.
And then there is all the consequence while implementing technology. How optimisations by better algorithms enable data mining, replacing manual labor, ...
Now of course impact differs. Not everybody is building V2 rockets (as well as Saturn rockets) like von Braun did, but there are many wheels in the machinery.
I myself am a small wheel in building database engines. The software is used by sports clubs to manage their members, shop owners to manage their inventory, companies to run their ads and air craft carriers to replicate strategic data across the ship, so that if one part is damaged, the other can still operate. If I were to leave, the organisation would continue developing, but the work has impact.