I use machines on their terms. I pretend to be a machine, simulate it in my head, and make it do what I want. Regardless of what kind of machine it is, a digital computer or a hand held drill.

This is how machines has been used since ancient Greece. And even before, in the time of Sargon of Akkad, the shaduf was used to lift water from a well.

You can argue that the shaduf is a tool not a machine, and maybe so, but while you use it, it becomes one, as you, yourself, provide the machinery needed to make it complete.

The shaduf is almost 5 thousand years old. There are more complicated ancient machines, like the Antikythera, and then very sophisticated war machines, and now computers, and the first autonomous machines.

An old autonomous machine I know of is the Pulser pump, it pumps water up, without any moving parts or any intervention. This is in sharp contrast of complexity with modern autonomous drones used for war, but I think they are the same thing. You can program the pump to finetune by changing the diameters of various pipes, and you get different pressure of the pulses, just as you can program the drone and make it do different things.

Well one machine has intelligence the other doesnt, I wont go into defining intelligence and then defending my definition, as I dont think it is important for what I am trying to explain.

The deep question is how we use machines, how we program them, and what is the difference between users and programmers.

Lets take the shaduf, I suspect all people of the Akkadian Empire could use it, but who could program it? To program it means to set the pivot at the right place so that it is useful. How many people, I wonder, could program it? Who was not afraid of it?

You know what you want, you want to fill your bucket with water. Imagine yourself, with a bucket standing in the middle of the desert infront of a well with a massive contraption next to it. What options do you have? You can always climb down the well and fill the bucket, but chances are you will drown. The most horrifying death, first it is slow, then fast. Slow enough to give you hope, and then take it. Alone in the bottom of the well, touching the slimy walls, trying to hold onto them. As the last ounce of hope drains through your fingers, you look up and think "If the sky turn into stone; It will matter not at all"...

So that is not a good option, another option is to use rope, but again, you might slip and fall, and a third option is to use the machine to lower your bucket into the well from a safe distance.

You observe it and think how does this machine work? In an instant you see many futures, and you play them through, what goes up, must go down. Equal to the gods themselves, Prometheus sees you and laughs.

But you see, even though you know what will happen before it happens, you must talk with the shaduf in its own terms. You must complete the machine, in fact, the machine is you and the shaduf. Not the shaduf itself.

On one side we have the shaduf on the other we have the modern digital computer, and you, the seventh son of the seventh son, the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, must complete the machine.

You know what you want, fresh air, cold clean water, good food, heated house? What is stopping you from having those things? Can you make a machine to help you? Can you program it? Can you use it? Can you complete it?

People are more different than alike, in fact, we are almost aliens to each other, pretending to be within some norm. Some people hear voices, some see feelings, others taste emotions. As above, so below; As within so without; One human to teach another something is the most difficult thing. Why cant you make your machine? How can I teach you what I know? How can I understand what you dont understand? You can pretend so well..

I personally was professional programmer for multiple years, now looking back at the code I wrote, I can clearly see I was not even wrong. I knew worse than nothing. And now at least I know few of the things I dont know. So how could anyone have taught me? When I was able to convince myself, my employer, my users, all of them, that I can program?

And, 20 years later, some of those programs are still in production, and businesses depend on them, how is this possible?

Of course, it is possible because of our father, the man who thinks ahead, Prometheus, because we can simulate worlds in our mind and complete the machine. Ha, if only he knew. Dont you see? There is no such thing as programmer, it is water that you want.

Now, with AI, you can make machines do things, and of course, design the actual machine to do the thing you wanted to do in the first place.

Water!