Python Will Rule the World
By oubiwann on Mar 2, 2007 in Open Source, Python
Before I tell you why, how about a story first?
When I was a kid, my parents bought a KayPro II so that they could use the spreadsheet program for financials and my dad could write a medical text book. I, of course, discovered the BSD games (BASIC clones) that came with it almost immediately. All of my friends had TSR-80s and C-64s, and it seemed that we all discovered BASIC and the hackability of games simultaneously. We would gather around the school computer and take turns making changes to the available games and then playing each others’ variants. It was a time of bliss that was only surpassed 15 years later when I discovered Linux and began contributing to and writing open source software.
Most programmers I talk to in my generation have similar stories to share: we got completely hooked on the industry (long before we knew there was an industry) solely on the merits of editable source code. My parents hated when I played “too much” and they never really “got” that I was actually only playing a fraction of the time. They thought I was getting wound up on high scores and grue evasion… but they were missing the bigger picture. I spent far more than half the time changing the games, adding levels, extending star fields… enriching my gameplay. The high that I had discovered and was totally addicted to was the mutability of my universe.
Enter OLPC. The One Laptop Per Child project is absolutely phenomenal, far more so than I had ever anticipated. After Ivan Krstić’s keynote at PyCon this year, everyone I talked to had the same impression that I had: Python Will Rule the World. And here’s why:
Thousands, hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of children around the world will be using these innovative little machines. Children are amazing, curious, and fantastically brilliant sentient beings. Highly sentient. And into these little genius hands will be placed laptops that connect them to their friends, their teachers, and the rest of the world. Their interface to these laptops will be written in python. There is even a button on the laptops to “show source.” Just as a small portion of my generation became addicted to the mutability of our universe, an insanely larger number of kids will have this same experience thanks to OLPC and python.
Look at what we’ve done so far. It’s been amazing. And look how few of us it took. But what’s going to happen when thousands and thousands of eager, curious, children from all over the world discover that, through the power of changing software, they can make changes to their world?
They will learn python. And with that, they will make this world theirs.
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Ed Daniel | Mar 4, 2007 | Reply
Perhaps, but I think XML made/makes more of a difference - which ever scripting language they choose it will be XML, used in a canonical way, that integrates each and everyone of us. I wonder what type of meta-knowledge will emerge when that happens?
I liked a post a while back talking about the ‘message is the ’software’ here:
http://billburnham.blogs.com/burnhamsbeat/2004/10/the_message_is_.html
Interesting interpretation perhaps when applied to ZENOSS i.e. leveraging messaging could be an interesting evolution especially when integrated into an ESB such as OW2 that helps bind multiple business to IT processes.
oubiwann | Mar 5, 2007 | Reply
Ed,
XML is really a data exchange format; it’s not useful in and of itself. Whereas programming languages are intrinsically useful, historically they have still been difficult to learn. BASIC was a world-changer due to its low barrier of entry and its pervasiveness. Likewise, python is almost trivial to learn and by putting it at the fingertips of hundreds of thousands of third-world children, it will also become unbelievably pervasive. It’s simple math. On top of that, add the fact that these kids are most likely aching for a chance to improve their lives, and we have a recipe for profound change.
My blog post wasn’t about “technology” and which standards will change the world. Standards don’t do shit. People do. And motivated kids with the right tools and growing knowledge do even more.
Ed Daniel | Mar 6, 2007 | Reply
Sorry to digress slightly here but your respone made me want to share another opinion that’s not technology related - I quite understand your enthusiasm but one must also recognize that giving starving children laptops is not perhaps an appropriate first action.
While the west keeps thinking it is their duty to spread technology as much as they’ve spread religion in the past the real issues if you wish to discuss them are on creating stable communities that protect and nurture - giving them laptops may or may not help.
Have you heard of http://www.nabuur.org or http://www.kiva.org - I think they provide more relevance than laptops for children.
That said, I acknowledge your reply but wonder if you understood mine - when a message is useful in and of itself.
oubiwann | Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
Sure there are all kinds of ways to help children in third-world countries, and there are organizations dedicated to doing just that. But think about it, is everyone good at doing the same thing? Should everyone in the world become a doctor so that everyone can be healed? If I make a damn good laptop and write damn good programs that could benefit millions of people, should I instead become a social worker so that the benefit I bring to others is more easily quantified with a causality that is easier to trace? Even if I suck at social work?
The goal of the OLPC isn’t to throw technology at starving children. It is to bring to underprivileged populations some of the advantages that thriving populations have. The goal is education and empowerment. As more of this world runs on technology and/or the critical problem solving skills so closely tied to technology, is feeding children enough? How is teaching them something that could provide them with the ability to feed themselves a wasted effort? How is this less relevant?
Ed, I did understand your point, but I completely failed to see the relevance it had to countless young minds in third world countries being given a chance to affect change in their world.
Ed Daniel | Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
Sorry to be unclear… the first point I made was that of XML being more of an influence than Python regarding the education/empowerment theme and I still believe that security and stable community life is the key goal - stopping arms dealing in Africa would also go a long way: http://del.icio.us/esdaniel/arms_trading
I was heavily influenced by Michael Corning in 1999 who presented to a room full of Microsoft developers in London on how XML would change the world and according to Michael end world poverty - a bold statement but one that I never forgot. Was he right? Maybe…
http://authors.aspalliance.com/mcorning/aboutMCorning.htm
http://202.102.233.250/b2000/ASP/articles/other/cn991210.htm (see bottom)
The other point was in relation to how Zenoss might leverage messaging and event driven architectures - for example using Zenoss in a global datacentre organisation where the datacentres load balance each other - the configuration / monitoring events would trigger business processes which in turn would trigger other processes. This, I believe, echos Bill’s thinking in his article.
Both are perspectives and perhaps we might get caught up in semantics when we both wish and want very similar things here so I apologize for any confusion.
oubiwann | Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
Ed, no need to apologize
You started a very interesting discussion that would not have happened otherwise! Given the context of your experience with Michael Corning’s talk, I now *do* see the relevance — thanks for the clarification.