4 ms·

I disagree - tech _is_ software and it’s so ubiquitous that it’s essentially invisible.

plaguepilled 4y ago
As yes, CPUs, those things famously bought because of the software that runs it. Certainly not because of any fabrication advances by a given company, hohoho. All tech is software!
- grog454 4y ago
  > As yes, CPUs, those things famously bought because of the software that runs it. They are bought because of the software that runs on it.
  - plaguepilled 4y ago
    You are still licensed the operating system and end user software from a separate company or companies. Which means the reduction of tech to JUST the software is still extremely crass. Said another way, the dependency graph is bidirectional. Software requires hardware to run. Hardware is of no practical use without software. The fixed quantity is the "use case", NOT the software.
    - hef19898 4y ago
      most hardware i use in my life, outside the laptop I use to write this comment or my phone, works pretty good without complicated software. Heck, even my cars are old enough to have some basic embedded software running the engine only. Also, software without hardware to run on, or to write n, is even more pointless than hardware alone. At least the latter can be touched.
Avicebron 4y ago
Planes, trains, and automobiles are tech. Software is a specific subset, software is a subset of tolling and techniques that's applied to "tech" no more than circuit boards, wires, or the wheel. It doesn't have a special elevated status. The more people understand that the faster people will stop hero worshipping it.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  > stop hero worshipping it I guess that's the case for software-centric platforms. It was not my experience. I worked for hardware-centric corporations, for most of my career, and became used to having software treated as a "nice to have, but not essential" part of the product. In many cases, my work (and myself) were treated with contempt. I got used to being sneered at. In my experience, this was a disastrous attitude, because, despite lots of folks wishing it weren't so, hardware, these days, is software. Software pervades everything, from the compiled silicon on peripheral ASICS and FPGAs, to the firmware that drives said chips. In my experience, firmware was treated as hardware, and the same rigid, waterfall process was applied to firmware, that was done for the hardware. Worked great. Until it didn't. Software is a drastically different beast from hardware. I won't bother going into the reasons. Anyone with a smattering of knowledge in the area, can list them. In any case, the hardware folks would treat any attempt to leverage the flexibility that software allows as "cowboy, low-quality, laziness." It was Waterfall, or you were a "bad engineer," and "lazy and undisciplined." I'm really big on Disciplined software development. That does not make me popular with this crowd. It also does not mean Waterfall. In my opinion, there's no way to avoid the difficult parts of engineering, but it's also important to be adaptive, responsive, and, dare I say it, "agile."
- paulryanrogers 4y ago
  Words can evolve. Here on this forum and in large parts of culture, 'technology' is any relatively recent innovation. Of which software is one of the more prominent examples.
  - willcipriano 4y ago
    Few would debate that the printing press is one of the most important pieces of tech humanity ever produced. At first it was used to print Bibles, but it was eventually used to print all sorts of other things. The philosophical texts that were later printed on the printing press were not a new "tech", but we pretend new apps for a iPhone are for some reason. When we increase the surface area of a definition like you are here it makes words meaningless.

As yes, CPUs, those things famously bought because of the software that runs it. Certainly not because of any fabrication advances by a given company, hohoho. All tech is software!

grog454 4y ago
> As yes, CPUs, those things famously bought because of the software that runs it. They are bought because of the software that runs on it.
- plaguepilled 4y ago
  You are still licensed the operating system and end user software from a separate company or companies. Which means the reduction of tech to JUST the software is still extremely crass. Said another way, the dependency graph is bidirectional. Software requires hardware to run. Hardware is of no practical use without software. The fixed quantity is the "use case", NOT the software.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    most hardware i use in my life, outside the laptop I use to write this comment or my phone, works pretty good without complicated software. Heck, even my cars are old enough to have some basic embedded software running the engine only. Also, software without hardware to run on, or to write n, is even more pointless than hardware alone. At least the latter can be touched.

Avicebron 4y ago

Planes, trains, and automobiles are tech. Software is a specific subset, software is a subset of tolling and techniques that's applied to "tech" no more than circuit boards, wires, or the wheel. It doesn't have a special elevated status. The more people understand that the faster people will stop hero worshipping it.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
> stop hero worshipping it I guess that's the case for software-centric platforms. It was not my experience. I worked for hardware-centric corporations, for most of my career, and became used to having software treated as a "nice to have, but not essential" part of the product. In many cases, my work (and myself) were treated with contempt. I got used to being sneered at. In my experience, this was a disastrous attitude, because, despite lots of folks wishing it weren't so, hardware, these days, is software. Software pervades everything, from the compiled silicon on peripheral ASICS and FPGAs, to the firmware that drives said chips. In my experience, firmware was treated as hardware, and the same rigid, waterfall process was applied to firmware, that was done for the hardware. Worked great. Until it didn't. Software is a drastically different beast from hardware. I won't bother going into the reasons. Anyone with a smattering of knowledge in the area, can list them. In any case, the hardware folks would treat any attempt to leverage the flexibility that software allows as "cowboy, low-quality, laziness." It was Waterfall, or you were a "bad engineer," and "lazy and undisciplined." I'm really big on Disciplined software development. That does not make me popular with this crowd. It also does not mean Waterfall. In my opinion, there's no way to avoid the difficult parts of engineering, but it's also important to be adaptive, responsive, and, dare I say it, "agile."
paulryanrogers 4y ago
Words can evolve. Here on this forum and in large parts of culture, 'technology' is any relatively recent innovation. Of which software is one of the more prominent examples.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  Few would debate that the printing press is one of the most important pieces of tech humanity ever produced. At first it was used to print Bibles, but it was eventually used to print all sorts of other things. The philosophical texts that were later printed on the printing press were not a new "tech", but we pretend new apps for a iPhone are for some reason. When we increase the surface area of a definition like you are here it makes words meaningless.