Commentaries

Zen-ophobia

Written in 2006, years before the recent glut of fairytale programming on television and film; 384 words, 5 analogies, and one metaphor, alas, Zen, the smart phone version, has gone the way of the Dodo.

This week, the sides of Fifth Avenue buses were graced with ads featuring the latest … Read the rest

Attack of the Software Giants

It’s not hard to conjure them up: dwarves, trolls, elves, swan princesses, copper, silver and golden forests, white stags — all primordial software, some of the most successful programming ever written — fairy tales.

We carry these algorithms in our collective unconscious. And even though the sacred runes faithfully inscribed … Read the rest