DEV Community

Austin Ewens
Austin Ewens

Posted on

3 1

Modern Day Wizard

Back in the medieval times, wizards were individuals who could wield power to perform acts that the hoi polloi could assume to be attributed to magic.
However, we know that they were not really wielding magic, but rather were skilled in the art of deception.
For this reason, the word "wizard" does not only refer to people with magical powers, but can also refer to a skillful person.

That being said, in the modern era people have taken a liking to seeing those who are technologically adept as something akin to wizards.
This is probably due to the third law of Clarke's three laws which states "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
Additionally, from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs there's a splendid description of how programming factors into the analogy of magic to technology:

In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells.

A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer's idea of a spirit.

It cannot be seen or touched.

It is not composed of matter at all.

However, it is very real.

It can perform intellectual work.

It can answer questions.

It can affect the world by disbursing money at a bank or by controlling a robot arm in a factory.

The programs we use to conjure processes are like a sorcerer's spells.

With this in mind, simply addressing one's self as a wizard without any other context tends to lean towards the medieval type of wizard rather than the kind that is well versed in technology.
So, to better distinguish between the two I went with the title "Modern Day Wizard".

Image of Timescale

🚀 pgai Vectorizer: SQLAlchemy and LiteLLM Make Vector Search Simple

We built pgai Vectorizer to simplify embedding management for AI applications—without needing a separate database or complex infrastructure. Since launch, developers have created over 3,000 vectorizers on Timescale Cloud, with many more self-hosted.

Read more

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
scott_yeatts profile image
Scott Yeatts •

The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures....
Yet the program construct, unlike the poet's words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separate from the construct itself. […] The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.

-Fred Brooks The Mythical Man Month, Author of Brooks Law

Image of Docusign

🛠️ Bring your solution into Docusign. Reach over 1.6M customers.

Docusign is now extensible. Overcome challenges with disconnected products and inaccessible data by bringing your solutions into Docusign and publishing to 1.6M customers in the App Center.

Learn more