Donald Firesmith
Auteur de What Lurks Below (Hell Holes, #1)
A propos de l'auteur
Donald G. Firesmith is senior member of technical staff in the Software Solutions Division at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). There, he helps the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies acquire large, complex, software-reliant systems. An internationally recognized software and afficher plus systems engineering expert, he has published books on requirements engineering, architecture engineering, situational method engineering, testing, and object-oriented development. afficher moins
Notice de désambiguation :
(eng) Books published under Donald Firesmith, Donald George Firesmith, and Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied (pen name)
Séries
Œuvres de Donald Firesmith
Object-Oriented Requirements Analysis and Logical Design: A Software Engineering Approach (1993) 14 exemplaires
Common System and Software Testing Pitfalls: How to Prevent and Mitigate Them: Descriptions, Symptoms, Consequences,… (2013) 7 exemplaires
Technology of object-oriented languages and systems : TOOLS 30 : proceedings : August 1-5, 1999, Santa barbara,… (1999) 1 exemplaire
Common System and Software Testing Pitfalls: How to Prevent and Mitigate Them: Descriptions, Symptoms, Consequences,… 1 exemplaire
A Slave's Revenge (Hell Holes #4) 1 exemplaire
Future Dreams and Nightmares 1 exemplaire
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Donald Firesmith
- Nom légal
- Donald George Firesmith
- Date de naissance
- 1952-06-14
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- USA
- Pays (pour la carte)
- USA
- Lieu de naissance
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Études
- Linfield College (BA | Mathematics, German)
Arizona State University (MA | Mathematics) - Professions
- Software Engineer
System Engineer
Author - Prix et distinctions
- Distinguished Engineer (Association of Computing Machinery, 2016)
- Courte biographie
- A computer geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He is also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered somewhat worrying whether the term “distinguished” makes him sound more like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is still more red than gray.
By night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his wife Becky, his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds. - Notice de désambigüisation
- Books published under Donald Firesmith, Donald George Firesmith, and Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied (pen name)
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 16
- Membres
- 119
- Popularité
- #166,388
- Évaluation
- 4.0
- Critiques
- 13
- ISBN
- 27
Whereas plants don’t need to do any of that—they don’t move about, the world comes to them—most animals certainly do need to, be they fish or fowl, horse or human. The thing is, autonomous machines of all kinds also do this, from humanoid robots to driverless vehicles, and Donald Firesmith’s contention here is that anything which does this is, by definition, sentient.
The bulk of the text (and accompanying diagrams) reads rather like a manual or set of engineering specs. First the human brain, then a self-driving vehicle: the idea is to illustrate just how similar these two systems are—when viewed, that’s to say, simply as systems, purely in terms of function rather than form. The author’s claim is that form is irrelevant in this context and that two entities which function in precisely the same way will be equally sentient—it makes no difference whether we’re talking about carbon, oxygen, glucose and cells, or silicon, copper, electricity and steel. Horses, humans and self-driving vehicles: we’re all conscious to some degree or other.
This is an odd book in both respects (form as well as function!), but I’ve spent far more time thinking about it (and re-reading) than I was expecting to. And I’ll leave you with its most memorable image: picture one of those new driverless taxicabs, suddenly sick of battling its way through the rush-hour traffic, bunking off work to go park quietly on its own for an hour or two in its favourite beauty-spot. Somewhere sometime, if Firesmith is right, that’s going to happen.… (plus d'informations)