from Hacker News

Common tech jobs described as cabals of Mesoamerican wizards

by betolink on 8/23/22, 9:43 PM with 127 comments

  • by hyperpallium2 on 8/23/22, 11:48 PM

  • by watersb on 8/24/22, 12:48 AM

    How funny! Just a few hours ago, I finished reading through Charles Stross' "The Laundry Files" sci-fi/fantasy series.

    https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/the-lau...

    The central premise is that magic and computation are essentially the same thing, information/entropy exchange that can open channels to other multiverse inhabitants when performed at sufficient scale. As computers have become more powerful and widespread, a secret government agencies have been drafting those who stumble upon particularly dangerous algorithms -- which can invoke bugs and close encounters.

    So the central protagonist of an IT guy for the UK secret ministry, "The Laundry". Visual Basic macros are not allowed!

  • by HPsquared on 8/24/22, 11:02 AM

    From the internet

    """ > dig in remote places > extract extremely rare rocks > perform a forming spell on the rocks > extreme heat and pressure are required > inscribe microscopic arcane sigils into your magical stones > imbue the stones with lightning > the stones gain anima > the stones speak in a language incomprehensible to all mankind > certain trained warlocks can control the powers of the stones > they learn the language of the stones > the warlocks harness the magical stones powers to bring forth light and image > the rest of the population is in awe > you can now access Fortnite p**n anywhere you want from the palm of your hand """

  • by timellis-smith on 8/24/22, 8:25 AM

    As a programmer watching fantasy movies I often wonder at how easily spell casters cast intricate spells like healing people.

    I imagine myself trying to cast a spell like that and having to go through fifty iterations to even begin to start doing the right operation without killing the person; and even when fully trained making tons of error while doing it complete with much swearing and cursing.

    I then start imagining how a spell academy would create tests for spells to test of unexpected consequences on the patient etc...

    It's amazing how much complexity is hidden in a simple spell in fantasy.

  • by programmer_dude on 8/24/22, 8:49 AM

  • by viciousvoxel on 8/24/22, 8:02 AM

    This is great and I'm a little sad that I wasn't the one to write it. I'm a SWE and my wife is an archaeologist who studies Teotihuacan.

    One point of clarification: Teotihuacano ≠ Aztec. The Aztecs discovered the ruins of Teotihuacan (and named it such) and incorporated many of its motifs into their own art.

  • by bee_rider on 8/23/22, 10:47 PM

    They claim to have tamed the smoke, but none of them can get it back in the mirror once it escapes.

  • by froh on 8/24/22, 8:55 AM

    > Perhaps the magicians whose magic is the most legible to those not acquainted with the Art are the data scientists, or melahuacatlatamachihuani — “those who measure well.” (Data, of course, in an abbreviation of tlatamachihualiztli, “measurement.”) For what is the world if not countless pieces of information that can be, through the clever use of spells written in the language of Quetzalcoatl, the Great Python, made to reveal truths?

    thanks for this, true aztec gold ...

  • by rektide on 8/23/22, 9:58 PM

    Oh those crazy Naciermas! This is a great read; thanks.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacirema

  • by belter on 8/24/22, 8:55 AM

    VC's described as Mesoamerican Characters: "Moneypriests, using razor-sharp obsidian blades, sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still-beating hearts to the gods."

  • by dsign on 8/24/22, 9:01 AM

    Fantasy writers hate the guts of our real world because it is far beyond their story about a poor kid discovering magic to set bushes on fire. And they still put said kid through “ordeals” which are about enduring the heartless magic teacher and the bully classmates. But I wish that in our stories, the ordeals of the wizards were what they really are: getting that befuddling bug fixed at 1:00 AM in the morning.

  • by Ligma123 on 8/24/22, 10:23 AM

    I am trying to figure out which of my tasks would be comparable to assembling a skull rack

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzompantli

  • by xaedes on 8/24/22, 10:23 AM

    If you like that you might also like The Wizardry series by Rick Cook

    Here a short description from some bookseller for the first book "The Wiz Biz":

    It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivered was master hacker Walter Wiz Zumwalt. The wizard who east the spell was dead and nobody—not the elves, not the dwarves, not even the dragons—could figure out what the shanghaied computer nerd was good for. But spells are a lot like computer programs, and, in spite of the Wiz's unprepossessing appearance, he was going to defeat the all-powerful Black League, win the love of a beautiful red-haired witch, and prove that when it comes to spells and sorcery, nobody but nobody can beat a Silicon Valley computer geek!

  • by GauntletWizard on 8/24/22, 3:39 PM

    This reminds me pleasantly of http://grimoire.computer/ - "The Realm of Rough Telepathy", a reimagining of the early days of IP Networking as a mystic arts, somewhat akin to alchemists of old.

  • by behrlich on 8/23/22, 11:29 PM

  • by hoseja on 8/24/22, 7:16 AM

    And first you have to carve cryptic runes into crystal slates with deadly invisible light and then imbue them with lightning to stir the gods from slumber.

  • by sdwr on 8/24/22, 4:08 AM

    Spooky how accurate that picture is. Hunched posture, professor frink-like grimace, spiral bloodshot eyes. I see myself!

  • by zwkrt on 8/23/22, 11:04 PM

    Aztecs didn't have backend engineers :)

  • by thrown_22 on 8/23/22, 10:28 PM

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(Linux_distribution)

    I rather enjoyed using that while it was still live and I was trying to understand how building an OS from source code worked in the 00s.

  • by stevenfoster on 8/24/22, 10:42 AM

    How in the world was Tlaloc not named the leader of the cloud!?

    But I enjoyed it. Even as a descendent of the Tarascans!

  • by BerislavLopac on 8/24/22, 5:46 AM

    Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." [0]

    My corollary of that law: "Any sufficiently understood magic is indistinguishable from boring technology." [1]

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws

    [1] https://www.quora.com/Are-Google-software-engineers-really-d...

  • by znpy on 8/24/22, 6:39 AM

    Sysadmins are ignored as usual… they cast the darkest spells after all

  • by CyanBird on 8/24/22, 8:10 AM

    A good article, not much to share on it other than a piece of art of the Chilean trading card game called mitos y leyendas, which has a card depicting tezcatlipoca

    https://www.deviantart.com/elgrimlock/art/tezcatlipoca-13654...

    This has always been my favorite version of him I have seen over the years

  • by grensley on 8/24/22, 3:09 AM

    Was on a team called "Quetzalcoatl" and I guess I'll have to inform them they should actually be doing data science, the heretics.

  • by chridou on 8/24/22, 11:12 AM

    First thing I was thinking of when I saw the picture was: Is that Bart Simpson?

  • by dekleinewolf on 8/25/22, 9:19 AM

    An enjoyable read but pretty clear what type of tech job the author holds.

    "We won't say much about desk top programmers" and we better not even mention embedded engineers.

    There is a world outside web, ya know!

  • by ur-whale on 8/24/22, 5:03 AM

    What happens if you feed "melahuacatlatamachihuani" to DALL-E ?

  • by karaterobot on 8/23/22, 11:02 PM

    This is basically how I understand the industry, yes.

  • by daitangio on 8/24/22, 10:11 AM

    This is great. I think he should add the K8s "Stability" role and the DevOps one too!

  • by helf on 8/23/22, 11:20 PM

    Hugged to death :(

  • by nathias on 8/24/22, 11:35 AM

    every day a part of our life is offered as sacrifice at the altar of Moloch

  • by xkcd1963 on 8/24/22, 7:14 AM

    Engineer != programmer

  • by imwillofficial on 8/24/22, 8:34 AM

    Do DevOps!

  • by labrador on 8/23/22, 11:20 PM

    Site won't load when I have Express VPN turned on. I screen shotted the Cloudflare error: https://imgur.com/bIyfcZR

    I am not an experienced VPN user (about a month) and I've noticed weird things like Google asking me if I'm a robot or making me solve a Captcha. I only got the VPN so I could torrent in peace, which it does well.

  • by r3trohack3r on 8/23/22, 11:32 PM

    Science is how we sort out the magic that works from the magic that doesn't. Just because we can observe it repeatedly, and it follows a reliable pattern, doesn't mean it isn't magic - it means the magic is REAL.

    The nature of our universe as we understand it today, and by understand I mean that we can show our constructs are at least partially supported by reality, is far more magical and glorious than anything our ancestors could dream up. Yes - the universe is absent of life (and gods) as far as we can see so far. But the universe is far more grand than anything we dreamed up and human accomplishments through harnessing the magic of our world has put many of our ancient gods to shame.

    Humans are amazing and this universe is magic. Don't let people rob you of that.

  • by trey-jones on 8/24/22, 1:17 PM

    I was hoping for a critique of the flagrant overuse of the title "engineer" in our field. Oh well, not this time.

  • by daniel-cussen on 8/24/22, 12:12 AM

    You don't know the half of it.

    In mathematics we're currently living through what is from one vantage a dark age that started when Spaniards arrived in Yucatán. So stuff they had was just...but it's cool I managed to salvage some. It actually works out great in digital circuits, uses the exact same number of transistors as current stuff but better answers. Well however it is wildly incompatible with the current way things are done and can literally induce brain pain or headaches or confusion when explained. Only time I felt pain from thought. And it screwes up mathematical ability for hours.

  • by codefreeordie on 8/23/22, 11:25 PM

    This is very clever, but also feels disrespectful of the Aztec traditions it uses as a somewhat-mocking comparison.