In her recent book Life in code: a personal history of technology, Ellen Ullman appeals to people of all races, genders, occupations and levels of socioeconomic status to learn how to program. She argues that more diverse involvement in software creation will make digital technology more useful, less intimidating, and less biased as it continues to evolve and influence our everyday lives. The following excerpt especially resonated with my views:
Later, when you are more skilled, I see you confronting the newly anointed oracles called data scientists, “experts” in scanning billions of data points. You say, “The answers you arrived at are mired in the bias of the past. Your information is based upon what has already happened. Those of us who have not succeeded in the past are not in your databases–or, worse, we are, as bad risks.”
To my hoped-for new programming army: You are society’s best hope for loosening the stranglehold of the code that surrounds us. Enlist compatriots. Upset assumptions. It will take time and perseverance, but you can do it. Stick a needle into the shiny bubble of the the technical world’s received wisdom. Burst it.
Ullman, Ellen Life in code: a personal history of technology, Picador (2017), pg. 247
