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(jargon.info)Anthropomorphization

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:Anthropomorphization:
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Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish
tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software.  This isn't done
in a naive way; hackers don't personalize their stuff in the sense of
feeling empathy with it, nor do they mystically believe that the
things they work on every day are `alive'.  What *is* common is to
hear hardware or software talked about as though it has homunculi
talking to each other inside it, with intentions and desires.  Thus,
one hears "The protocol handler got confused", or that programs "are
trying" to do things, or one may say of a routine that "its goal in
life is to X".  One even hears explanations like "...  and its poor
little brain couldn't understand X, and it died."  Sometimes modelling
things this way actually seems to make them easier to understand,
perhaps because it's instinctively natural to think of anything with a
really complex behavioral repertoire as `like a person' rather than
`like a thing'.