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Composers as Gardeners (2011) (edge.org)
29 points by conanxin on Jan 18, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



A couple past submissions:

Brian Eno: Composers as Gardeners - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14288339 - May 2017 (35 comments)

Composers As Gardeners - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225675 - Nov 2011 (1 comment)


It's a lovely way to think about artistic creation, including music. The title says it all, but I enjoyed listening to Brian Eno, his mention of cellular automata, and how he considers the Gardens of Versailles as an ultimate expression of anti-nature, asserting complete human control.

It made me wonder how this may apply to software, where we consider ourselves "engineers" and "architects". Can production-worthy software systems be developed by "gardeners"? Did Linus Torvalds architect his operating system, or grow it?


Christopher Alexander's work, see for example "The Timeless Way of Building", affirms that genuinely good architecture must also be a kind of gardening.


First thought that came to mind - "Chance the Gardener"[0]

Shortly followed by Frank Zappa and his bicycle[1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_There

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE&t=50s




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