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From: deralin@pawl.rpi.edu (Gregory A Kohlenbe)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: direction of development
Message-ID: <GAA^-#=@rpi.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 90 20:16:26 GMT
Distribution: comp.society.futures
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 15
Nntp-Posting-Host: pawl6.pawl.rpi.edu


	I recently took part in a discusion about the nature of programing 
 languages and how they are viewed in society.  We were primarily concerned
 with the different ways of viewing what a computer program  is, and based on 
 this, how a programer could get legal protection in the form of a patent 
 or a copywrite, depending  on whether a program in viewed as aprocess or as
 a description of methods/ideas.
	What caught my attention was someone sayiong that the way we decide
 to view a program (as a machine part or as an experssion of ideas) will
 determine the future attitude towards programming.  if a program is just a
 machine part, the computer is just a machione.  But if  a program is
 though of as a "language" it will further the drive for developing
 computer systems that imitate thought.  Will it make a significant
 difference?
  


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