Spiritual Programming (OT, but Python-inspired)

[Shane Hathaway]

UrsusMaximus at gmail.com wrote:
> Perhaps this is one reason why programmers are so passionate, and even
> religious, about their programming tools; because they intuitively
> sense that we are dealing with ideas that, however crudely, mirror
> eternal realities of immense significance.

While I don't associate any spiritual significance with programming, I 
do think that the choices we've made in the field of programming reflect 
deeply upon human cognition.

A modern computer is a thoroughly abstract mathematical machine, so 
programmers can choose almost any abstraction to solve a problem.  But 
it turns out that some abstractions fit our minds better than others, so 
programmers usually apply a small set of abstractions many times.  So if 
we could categorize and chart the space of all programming abstractions 
that we have found most useful, we might learn a little about how our 
minds work.  The research could be valuable for AI.

Shane