[PLUG-TALK] topic of the day ... discuss!

glen gepr at ropella.name
Fri May 3 17:39:29 UTC 2013


Russell Senior wrote at 05/03/2013 09:56 AM:
> Is this really that different from putting iodine in salt?  Or vitamin
> D in milk?  Or vitamin B12 (or whatever the hell they put in
> "fortified" flour) in bread?

No, it's not very different.  But that's the point.  Large scale
monoculture _does_ work, despite any criticisms of the lack of talent of
pop stars, the health benefits of McDonald's, or the hegemony of
Monsanto.  And our scientific consensus tells us that genetically
modified crops and tiny amounts of turkey poop in our industrially
produced ground turkey is _safe_.  The risks are negligible.  So, big
deal, eh?

The question is whether we should take pride in ham-handed solutions
like this?

Perhaps an analogy to software is appropriate?  What's more interesting,
satisfying, and pride inducing, writing a program that "just works": a)
in a generic, safe, scripting language that runs on a typical computer
or b) in a domain-specific toolchain, with all its prickly peculiarities?

Perhaps it merely boils down to personal preference.

-- 
=><= glen e. p. ropella
Choking on bits of barley bread crumbs




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