Alex WellersteinVerified account

(And again, to highlight what I mean by the effect of instruments/tools: I can teach undergrads with no coding experience how to make something like the NUKEMAP in about 4 mos. That is because tools+APIs+browsers+etc. have changed. Would have been impossible to do 20 years ago.)

(Doesn't mean tacit knowledge — experience and judgment, for example — doesn't exist. But it can be *dramatically* reduced as a barrier to entry to a given field/technical skill/etc.)

Yes, totally agree with you, and if someone truly thinks tacit knowledge is some kind of perpetually effective proliferation barrier you have my permission to laugh at them :).

The need for tacit knowledge never goes away. But tech. change does seem to diminish its role systematically. Eg., CNC vs hand-machining.

Which tho dropping it doesn’t remove need for skilled practice and is only one part of an overall system of processes of articulating various skilled & automated material tasks into a useful “WMD”

Nuclear weapon designer’s idea of “judgment” is fascinating to think with tacit knowledge about. Especially in these latter days of the moratorium.

One of my former friends in Louisiana was a CNC machinist. His stories of training others to do so made to me clear that it isn’t plug and play. Still gotta have a skilled operator even if skill set diff than non-CNC machining.

Here’s another example: a new insight - a “recipe” - enabled small groups all over the world to replicate a new machine.https://twitter.com/thenonproreview/status/928643229364506624 …