So You Want To Be A Wizard?
Wizard noun: One skilled in Magic, a very clever or skilful person
When I was a kid I was always attracted to, and most identified with, the Wizard characters in stories. Dr Strange, Dr Fate, Merlin, Gandalf, or analogues like the Jedi (this was before a certain young Potter overran this particular corner of the imagination) I loved the idea of mysterious individuals being able to alter reality with a few words and the wave of a hand.
So it probably isn’t surprising that I ended up in programming for a vocation. It is, in my opinion at least, the closest thing there is to being an actual wizard.
He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. — Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Let us look at the facts, we live embedded in a vast interconnected and invisible web that permeates our lives in a fashion few of us really comprehend. It influences our moods, it shows us truths, half-truths and downright lies. It shapes our internal maps and influences the territory they represent.
As this invisible world has grown it is slowly becoming populated with alien intelligence, who operate more and more in ways we struggle to comprehend. These entities can be invoked and bound to our wills, but like the fickle gods and spirits of legend you have to be very clear about what you ask them or the results can be unexpected.
As well as the mental space this web is encroaching more and more into the physical world, we can conjure invisible spirits by speaking magic words at magic boxes ‘Hey Google tell me a joke!’, or we can switch on a light, or see from vast distances through magic eyes attached to our doors.
And this is only the beginning.
And in the middle of this hidden web are a group of individuals who speak in strange tongues, cast arcane symbols onto a screen and play with the warp and weft of this mysterious world. They understand the secret landscape that underpins our modern society and are prepared to navigate its fairy roads and bargain with its denizens.
Most people don’t see this, we’ve become so enamoured and desensitised to this glamour that we’ve ceased to see how downright bonkers some of it is.
To illuminate your dining room you’re sending a message over phone lines to a data centre, potentially hundreds of miles away, to send a message back to your house to turn on a light?!?
And those of us who do understand often still miss the significance, this is magic made real.
Do not call up that which you cannot put down — HP Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Any good wizard knows before you cast you should banish. Build your circle, make your intent strong, and put your wards in place, more to protect yourself from your own stupidity and hubris than anything else. Automated tests, Dev-Ops practice or strong legislation and ethical frameworks, these are the tools modern magicians use to protect themselves.
We can already see the effects of government sponsored ‘dark wizards’ casting malign curses to possess our networks and devices, or ideas starting with good intentions (Let’s all share our photos!) warping and running out of control like the sorcerer’s apprentice. As we move towards the potential of genuine artificial intelligence we should heed Mr Lovecraft’s words.
But we can understand the responsibility we hold and the amazing opportunities it affords us. We can choose to help and nurture the world around us, cure diseases, fight poverty, affect the world in a positive way. If we choose to wear the mantle of a modern wizard, then we can strive to help lift the world up not pull it down.
