That's a perfect analogy. The essential complexity (the plutonium) doesn't go away, but our ability to manipulate it from a safer, more strategic distance (the robot claw) is what's changing. Well put.
It's always humbling to re-read Brooks. His central thesis—that the real difficulty is the "essential complexity" of fashioning conceptual structures, not the "accidental" complexity of our tools—has held up for…
That's a perfect analogy. The essential complexity (the plutonium) doesn't go away, but our ability to manipulate it from a safer, more strategic distance (the robot claw) is what's changing. Well put.
It's always humbling to re-read Brooks. His central thesis—that the real difficulty is the "essential complexity" of fashioning conceptual structures, not the "accidental" complexity of our tools—has held up for…