Unfortunately no, there isn't one 😬 I know that's not really a great situation but I currently don't have the time to translate it or run the whole thing through a translator ...

It's relatively of course. But in comparison to the rest of society, they are only a few. Those who program and those who don't. I think it would be better of also all the other's would have some skills.

>Wildbow's "Pactverse"

Thanks, no I never heard about it. I will check it out.

I think you are forgetting creativity, also an important aspect. And I think if people are creative and have a problem that are interested in, they will willingly get their head around the other stuff, too (at least some will).

After all, all jobs that require some thinking need those skills. And with more automatization and digitalization, those jobs will only become more.

You are right. I have talking about stories too much. But it could be in any medium really.

Games could be the best medium, that's true but after all, they too are telling stories. What they can do can also be done in a story if done right. Also many great video games are based on books like the Witcher.

I would like to add to your list the manga "Witch Hat Atelier". It's about a young witch, who learns magic, which in this world means drawing magic runes. It is in my opinion the closest one can get to the feeling of programming in fiction medium that is passive (novel, movie, comic, etc.). And it is also kind of popular.

I'm actually not sure myself whether novels are the right medium here. What I wonder about games is that they typically have a much lower live span. People read novels that were written one hundred years ago. Most games are outdated after a few years. Because many skills associated with computer science can be described in a general manner, I think there could be a book, for example like the Lord of the Ring, that would be fresh for a long amount of time. In my opinion that would be a great step forward.

Yes, that goes exactly in the way I thought of it myself. It's about problem solving skills, which are not only useful for programming but for interacting with a digital world in general.

Actually Mistborn and also Patrick Rothfuß The Name of the Wind already go in this direction.

And I'm just thinking: what if kids grow up with those type of books? Imagine a whole generation who grew up with a version of Harry Potter, in which magic works like programming. I'm sure good programmers would come out of this.

Although I'm sure it could also have some drawbacks ...

I don't say that the idea is new. However, it was never implemented to the extend I have in mind. Ok, so apparantly MIT presented programming as magic, but is there any mainstream fantasy novel, series or movie in which this is truly the case?

So, the idea was tried out in a sort of proof of concept manner, but never really implemented on a full scale ;) I want it on a full scale.

Thanks for the Zachtronics games hint. This looks really interesting. I will look into it.

Sure

I described the magic system I came up with in this document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u5h22l4CAtd1XpqQ0hqho_5h3zgYwim2/view (it's open-source and based on object-orientation)

If that's too long, I also wrote a novel, which incorporates the magic system: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19QboE8cVZ2Do4Jfdfe9Ewh9ACdYO0bSx/view (it's in the public domain)

But this novel I wrote is only a prototype.

The idea is, that this could give way to what I call the "Etherverse", a shared universe, in which all stories incorporate my magic system. But as opposite to say, the Potterverse, it is fully dezentralized, meaning that everybody can equally add stories to it by incorporating my magic system in one's story. There exists no strict canon, even my own story is in the public domain and can be copied and modified by anyone. And the more people join it, hopefully one day, a truly great novel will come out of this. I for one would really like to read it :)

This is further described in the following post: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/zg9b20/the_etherverse_a_decentral_shared_universe_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Right, I should clarify this: it's also about changing the way we think about programmers in pop culture. Currently that is: Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, who does his thing. It would be great to have some different stories, in which women are included and which also depicts the daily experience of programmers more correctly: that it's about teamwork.

I'm not saying women need that. In the case of bringing women to learn coding it's more about breaking up existing believes how programmers look like, have role models in pop culture, etc.

You are right, there is no use in giving people random programming skill that they can't use anyways. BUT:

First, it could get more people interesting in programming in the first place (especially women, who are underrepresented) and more programmers mean more excellent programmers mean more innovation. I think we shouldn't kid ourself that all people who could be excellent programmers are become ones.

Secondly, it could bring coding in new areas, for example law firms, creative secotrs, etc. Instead of letting all the functionality be done by the programmer, it is given to the user for example with a domain specific language. Because they are the experts in their area and with some coding skills, they could probably also write simple algorithms to solve their problems faster.

TLDR. Innovation through reaching more excellent programmers. And by increasing the overall knowledge about programming/computers, more programming can be delegated to the user, which also leads to new innovation.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/LongWavesThreeParadigms.jpg

Because we are currently at the beginning of the biggest revolution happening to human kind and because innovation in this century happens mainly in software. Therefore, programming is the skill of the 21. century and the more people learn it the better. I'm not necessarily speaking about actual hard programming but visual programming or low-code everybody could be useful for many people.

It's true, you cannot really get deep into stuff. I'm talking more about programming on a very basic level: visual programming, low-code. Maybe in the future, more companies build stuff like that into their programs and everybody can program a little. Then knowledge about it could be useful.

And the gory details they can learn if they want to (what, true, they probably won't in most cases :D)

I think it could be gen z' answer to the question, Zadie Smith asked gen y ten years ago:

“Or is it possible he just loves programming? No doubt the film-makers considered this option, but you can see their dilemma: how to convey the pleasure of programming - if such a pleasure exists - in a way that is both cinematic and comprehensible?”

Zadie Smith (Generation Why?)

No I haven't but it looks awesome. However, I'm thinking how to incorporate computer knowledge in fiction, which no one has until now properly managed to do.

Right, but only because up until know, there was no work of fiction that managed to do that in an entertaining sort of way. But what if there would be something like the series Queens Gambit for Programming? I'm sure that would be possible. A young witch learning programming and then excelling in it. Then many people could be brought to programming.

Submission statement:

With fantasy fiction that teach people how to program, a basic understanding of computer science could be brought to large parts of society, empowering people to participate in the development of the web instead of being only consumers.

Possible questions for discussion:

- Could this work?
- Is fantasy even the right setting? Or should it be a historical setting, e.g. like ancient Greek, science fantasy or science fiction?
- Could a level 4 magic system be generated with the help of AI?