I think we program because, as humans, we like to create things. There are different difficulty levels of programming, so it is something everyone can do to an extent. By knowing how to program, you have an advantage over people who don’t and are on the same playing field as people who do. When you do not have these skills, digital technology outgrows you, and it is hard to stay afloat in a digital world. Nowadays, programmers hold power. For me, I am mostly learning programming because I have to, but my dad’s views on why we should program aligns more with the ideas of the readings. He is a computer guy and thinks programming is such a valuable skill to have. The authors invite us to think beyond instrumentalism by talking about how we can use programming to not only explain and predict but create. Programming can be an opportunity for everyone to have a medium that everyone can understand.

Weapons of math destruction are types of models with three criteria: opacity, scale, and damage. Opacity means that the models of these algorithms are not common knowledge. Scale means they affect a large number of people. Danger means they have serious negative effects on people. An example of a weapon of math destruction is credit scores. Here is an interesting TedTalk by Cathy O’Neil we watched in my social media class that talks about algorithms.

Out of the three pillars, I started with “thing.” I want to make a game. Right now, my idea is to make a game on Twine that either has to do with anxiety or the poverty cycle. My backup idea is something to do with HTML that is more advanced than what we did in class.