In the Middle Ages people built cathedrals, where the whole town would get together and make a thing that's greater than any individual person could do and the society would kind of revel in that. We don't do that as much anymore, but in a sense this is kind of like building a cathedral.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Software development is compared to medieval cathedral building as a collective, meaningful societal effort.
- In plain terms
- Building software is like building a cathedral together.
- What can you take from it?
- Technology work can be a shared societal project like historical monuments.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is software a public good?
- How do we build together today?
Another view
Modern software often lacks the long-term societal cohesion of cathedral building.
More from Hal Abelson
Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement
Permalink to quote #2 Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science.
Permalink to quote #4 If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.
Permalink to quote #1
Related quotes
I think they called me the closest thing to a God of the Internet. But at the end, that article wasn't very complimentary, because the author suggested that I …
Jon PostelJon Postel quote #4 The combination of modern ordnance and outdated tactics had, as ever, created enormous casualties on both sides.
Iain BanksIain Banks quote #1 'There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.'
Ken OlsenKen Olsen quote #1