It was fascinating to learn of esoteric languages, programming languages designed to serve primarily as statements or art pieces rather than to serve primarily as means to complete practical goals on the computer. One thing I never considered about esoteric languages and programming in general is that they could be a result of the surrounding cultural and political atmosphere in which this field has developed. After all, it is humans, not computers, that create languages to code.

One of the languages mentioned in Tveten’s article is Nasser’s Arabic language قلب, which is a programming language that is written in Arabic. The Anglocentric traits of programming languages is brought into the spotlight. For people who do not know English, it does seem like picking up programming would be much harder for them than for people who do know English. This would cause an inherent inequality for non-English speakers who want to pursue computer science and software engineering as a career. It is discouraging to hear Nasser tell those eager to learn coding without knowing English that it is not possible in the current state of the field. It also brings up the topic of Anglocentrism in a lot of other fields. For example. English is considered a language that all pilots must know in order to communicate with one another. I suspect that it is the result of English colonialism in the past and America’s global influence in the present. Nasser’s language opens up the possibility of non-English programming languages and makes a point that languages do not have to be in English to be practically functional, which could create a more inclusive atmosphere for those who do not know English.

Another thing that is addressed is the idea that society’s views of the binary may have been applied to programming through the binary logic prevalent in software. This was something I’ve never thought about before, and I wonder what kind of logic should exist if a binary logic cannot be replaced. However, there are some parts in which I find myself disagreeing that the way programming uses binary logic can be as harmful as some of the binary logic found in societal cultures. For example, many programming languages have a variable type known as a “boolean,” where binary logic is employed. The logic is that a boolean can only be “true” or “false.” Clarity is important when writing a program, and a straight true or false is clear and, while it employs binary logic, it can be equated with the binary logic of a simple “yes” or “no” answer used in real-world conversations, rather than equated to the binary logic of “male” and “female.” Even so, it would be interesting to see a programming language that rejects binary logic, and what practical goals such a language could be useful for. 

As a student majoring in Computer Science, I had noticed the Anglocentric nature of programming, but I did not notice until now the other political and cultural influences that the field has had.

Sources:

Tveten, Julianne. “Code Is Political.” Vice, 1 Mar. 2016, www.vice.com/en_us/article/3dak5w/code-is-political.

“Aviation English.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_English.