I remember how I learned to program. My parents had a Timex Sinclair with no tape drive and 4K of RAM, so if you wanted to use a program, you had to type it in, in BASIC, from scratch. The computer came with a book of programs. I just looked at the programs, figured out what they did, and started writing my own modifications. I think I was around 5 years old.
I guess I must have just been "born rational", if you're going to equate programming ability with rationality.
But what makes you think that the "programming gear" I had - the quality of a born hacker, by which the first time we look at any piece of code, anywhere, any time in our life, at any age, we instantly know how to program - is equivalent to "rationality"? Or even "intelligence"?
There are physicists who cannot learn to program, apparently. This shocks me. But if I can learn to program at age five without instruction, and a physicist cannot learn to program with instruction, that makes it pretty darn plausible to me that yes, there is a "programming gear".
PS: How the hell can you be a physicist and not be able to write computer programs? WTF, human brain?
Its easier to learn programming when you're a kid. Its easier to learn natural languages when you're a kid. How long would it take an adult to learn a second natural language to conversational fluency? Some people can do it in six months or less. Some will never achieve it.
I guess I must have just been "born rational", if you're going to equate programming ability with rationality.
But what makes you think that the "programming gear" I had - the quality of a born hacker, by which the first time we look at any piece of code, anywhere, any time in our life, at any age, we instantly know how to program - is equivalent to "rationality"? Or even "intelligence"?
There are physicists who cannot learn to program, apparently. This shocks me. But if I can learn to program at age five without instruction, and a physicist cannot learn to program with instruction, that makes it pretty darn plausible to me that yes, there is a "programming gear".
PS: How the hell can you be a physicist and not be able to write computer programs? WTF, human brain?