It's Just a Function

Bob: yeah, it's simple, see? it's just a function.

Alice: So this is a just a function, which is what... a type of generalized description of some arbitrary algorithmic procedure, and in this particular case a textual representation of same in a particular but likewise arbitrary programming language and syntax, and is in practice here interpreted by a virtual machine, which is itself, a bunch of code and functions and stuff, which is just data, which is numbers, basically, running on a real machine, which is a bunch of transistors and chips and hoobledy gock and whatsits that redirect electricity really quickly in different ways that we read back to get answers to math problems? So we're just harnessing lightning to do math? That's amazing!

Bob: Yeah, it's really simple, it's just a function.

Alice: I just don't understand why you are so dismissive. Saying "it's just a function" completely obscures and minimizes so much.

Bob: Hey look, I'm with you, all right? I have admiration for the triumphs of modern technology and am suitably filled with similar awe when I take a moment to sit back and consider the tower of abstractions we've built the modern world on top of, but the abstractions go all the way down. The only way we can move forward, ever, or more appropriately to the metaphor, upwards, is to pick out some point on that tower below which we don't bother with. Fundamentally, it's a tradeoff. The lower down you go, the more control you have over everything, but the more work it takes to do anything. The higher up you go, the more you have to rely on abstractions you had no hand in building, but they become more and more powerful, and you can do a lot more a lot faster. You have to sit at the appropriate place on this pile of abstractions, both for where you are in your understanding and for what is appropriate to the task you're trying to complete. I'm sorry if I seemed dismissive, I didn't mean it that way.

Alice: I guess we both have a point.