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by ahhhhnoooo 67 days ago
The purpose of a system is what it does. If that wasn't the purpose, the system would be changed.
1 comments
therealdrag0 67 days ago
That’s as dumbs as the saying “there can’t be a 100$ bill on the ground because if there was it’d have been picked up.”
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ahhhhnoooo 67 days ago
It's not at all like that?

Claiming that a system's purpose is something it consistently fails to do is absurd. Intentions don't matter, outcomes matter.

This is a pretty basic systems theorist argument, to be honest...

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therealdrag0 67 days ago
A systems purpose depends on its creator. Creators regularly fail to produce intended results. It’s absurd to say an unintended result is the intended result
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kennywinker 67 days ago
How long is it ok to produce “unintended” results without changing anything, before you can say that’s now an expected part of the system? Because i think that’s the issue. It’s not that the US has a goal to criminalize poverty - the constitution doesn’t say anything about that - but since it’s been that way for so long it seems the system is unwilling to do what needs to be done to prevent that. It’s part of the expected behavior of the system.
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ahhhhnoooo 67 days ago
> It’s absurd to say an unintended result is the intended result

I didn't say that. I said the unintended results are the purpose of a system, not the intent.

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therealdrag0 67 days ago
This feels like a bait and switch. Can you define purpose for me?
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ahhhhnoooo 67 days ago
Fair.

Intent - what someone wanted or expected the system to do.

Purpose - what the system does in practice. The reason, or primary function for it.

Some classic examples -- post it notes were intended as a aerospace adhesive, but found their purpose as low tack papers.

If you want a classic systems example, standardized testing is a good example of difference between purpose and intent. It was intended to be a mechanism for measuring schools and ensuring every kid got an equal education. But now its purpose could be described as the metric schools game. It narrows curricula, encourages teaching to the test. Those outcomes are not the original intent. Or even desirable.

So I wasn't being flippant (maybe a little flippant) when I was saying intent and purpose are different.

Other classic examples -- the US senate, social media algorithms, animal bounties (paying people per head bounties on killed rats, frogs, or snakes results in people breeding those animals), war on drugs, zoning laws, etc.

It's very closely related to the idea that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

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