From owner-cse584-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Wed Apr 4 15:12:55 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l34JCsdQ007396 for ; Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:12:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front2.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l34JCncN061069 for ; Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:12:49 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 22021 invoked from network); 4 Apr 2007 18:12:49 -0000 Received: from mailscan4.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.136) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Apr 2007 18:12:49 -0000 Received: (qmail 21970 invoked from network); 4 Apr 2007 18:12:48 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Apr 2007 18:12:48 -0000 Received: (qmail 3590 invoked from network); 4 Apr 2007 18:12:37 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Apr 2007 18:12:37 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4377586 for CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:12:37 -0400 Delivered-To: CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 817 invoked from network); 4 Apr 2007 18:12:36 -0000 Received: from mailscan8.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.55) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Apr 2007 18:12:36 -0000 Received: (qmail 17626 invoked from network); 4 Apr 2007 18:12:35 -0000 Received: from hadar.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.1) by smtp5.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Apr 2007 18:12:35 -0000 Received: from hadar.cse.Buffalo.EDU (ag33@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hadar.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l34ICZ1E002583 for ; Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:12:35 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from ag33@localhost) by hadar.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l34ICYPf002581; Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:12:34 -0400 (EDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-UB-Relay: (hadar.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 14:12:34 -0400 Reply-To: Albert Goldfain Sender: "Philosophy of Computer Science, Spring 2007" From: Albert Goldfain Subject: "the real thing" for programmers and artists To: CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (hadar.cse.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/3012/Wed Apr 4 07:49:03 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 906 my friend was recently involved in a photo contest at the burchfield-penny art center and I went with her to pick up her photos...I saw the following quote prominently displayed in the building: "An artist must paint not what he sees in nature, but what is there. To do so he must invent symbols, which, if properly used, make his work seem even more real than what is in front of him." (from http://www.burchfield-penney.org/ceb/) I know almost nothing of burchfield as an artist, but this seems to capture the artist striving against the Kantian problem of phenomenon-noumenon. Just change the word "artist" to "programmer" and "paint" to "program" :-) Sometimes our programs end up seeming more *real* to us than the things they are models of. This may be because it is easier to understand the behavior of the process of a program modelling a hurricane than to understand the real thing. albert