I originally started reading The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hamming a few years ago. Though I got distracted by more easily digestible books, so I dropped it a few chapters in. Now untethered, I finally finished the book. If you think you’re getting a proper summary, you’ve got another think coming: I’m here to blather on about a tangentially related topic!

In his chapters about artificial intelligence (AI), Hamming asks: to what extent can machines think? Before that, to what extent can people think?

I’d claim I can kind of think. While I got good grades in my computer science program, my eyes glaze over Hamming’s math-heavy sections about n-dimensional space and digital filters. On this matter, Hamming himself presents a low opinion of most people:

Unfortunately, many humans at present are not equipped to compete with machines - they are unable to do much more than routine jobs. There is a widespread belief (hope?) humans can compete, once they are given proper training. However, I have long publicly doubted you could take many coal miners and make them into useful programmers. [I]f you mean the more classical activity of careful analysis of a situation and then the detailed specification as to what is to be done, then I say there are doubts as to what fraction of the population can compete with computers, even with nice interactive prompting menus.

“Learn to code”, if you will.

So while Hamming presents the art of science and engineering for people who can think, what about the rest of us? If the rest of us get automated out of jobs, Hamming seems quite dismissive of poverty alleviation:

We are constantly upgrading the level of poverty, hence it is a losing game trying to remove it - they will simply change the definition until there are enough of people below the poverty level to continue the projects they manage! What is now called “poverty” is in many respects better than what the Kings of England had not too long ago!

I suppose in Hamming’s world, the rest of us can eat sh*t and die.

Now, even though I’d buy a copy of Eat Sh*t and Die by multi-hyphenate Richard Hamming for each of my friends for every birthday, I’ll acknowledge Hamming wrote the better book based on his expertise in science and engineering. Hamming presents great insight into the art of science and engineering, provided you can kind of think and put in the effort to understand what he means. In that, Hamming emphasizes thinking for yourself, and in thinking for myself, I see we shouldn’t depend on an expert of science and engineering for our political opinions.

So what about the rest of us? As opposed to what Hamming implies, I think we should invest more in poverty alleviation. Though like Hamming in his book, I can only point out big issues and gesture at solutions in this post.