• simulating "in head" vs "in computer" aka "playing computer"
  • computer is better at simulating (infinite) possibilities (ladders of abstraction) than our mind
  • humans are great at choosing based on what they can see (creating/curating, solving things visually, novelty search)
  • simulating computer in our head might not be the best way to program, it's just the one way we are used to
  • proper generic simulator could become a bicycle for the mind
  • this might be loosely related to meta-cognition and debugging where we can also simulate our own thinking process to debug it
• related to future of coding - "playing computer" is just silly
• computers being able to simulate any other computers (ad infinitum) is an important computing idea that had to be invented!
• taking step back, Alan Kay keeps talking about computers as a meta-medium - one that can simulate any other one, and also one that allows us to create simulations to understand the world
• references:
  • Where's My Simulator?

computation as simulation

— Metaphor in User Interface Design

One of the realizations we had about computers in the 60s was that they give rise to new and more powerful forms of arguments about many important issues via dynamic simulations. That is, instead of making the fairly dry claims that can be stated in prose and mathematical equations, the computer could carry out the implications of the claims to provide a better sense of whether the claims constituted a worthwhile model of reality. And, if the general literacy of the future could include the writing of these new kinds of claims and not just the consumption (reading) of them, then we would have something like the next 50 year invention after the printing press that could very likely change human thought for the better.

— Alan Kay - The Real Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet