Code Poetry
April 17th, 2004
Heya, I just uploaded:
How to decrypt a
DVD: in haiku form.
(Thanks, Prof. D. S. T.)
It's one of the greatest examples of how code can become a form of expression.
The U.S. government isn't dealing with the computer age very well. Between their shitty software patent system, the DMCA's restrictions on freedom, and their inability to see why code is just another form of human expression, the government seems to be more interested in ignoring computers than addressing them.
Did you know that movies weren't originally considered free speech? Originally, the first amendment was intended for written arguments, so it took a while for it to filter into other forms of media.
But I've never seen a better way of illustrating an idea than writing a program that performs it. Take any one of the multitude of fractal programs out there. A paper that explains how they work is obviously free speech, so why isn't a program that implements it?
Technically, a program is something that explains something to a computer. It says: "Hey, make me a fractal." But if a human can read that code and understand what it says, how can it not be protected as free speech?
I thought the intent of the first amendment was to protect our right to communicate with each other. Why is the government so particular about how we communicate?
