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82-Year-Old Pope Francis Is 'First Pope To Write a Line of Code' (geekwire.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the coding-cardinals dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: After seeing to it that UK Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all received (widely-publicized) coding lessons, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi noted in late 2016 that he was "still working on Pope Francis." GeekWire reports that Partovi was able to cross that one off his bucket list Thursday, as he helped Pope Francis become 'the first Pope to write a line of code' at a 'Programming for Peace' event organized by the Pope's foundation, Scholas Occurrentes, in Vatican City (not ready for Twitch.TV video).

"In the 21st century, computer science is a fundamental subject that all students should learn," said Partovi, whose tech-bankrolled nonprofit has entered a partnership with Scholas to introduce children to computer science. "Schools should teach computer science to prepare students for the future, empower children with creativity and teach how to harness technology and creativity." The Pontiff's programming lesson comes a month after Partovi's next-door neighbor, Microsoft President and Code.org Board member Brad Smith, had a sit-down with the Pope to discuss the ethical use of AI and ways to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations.

3 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. What is it with the bullshit? by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is about having them put on a band-aid and claiming that was the action of a surgeon. Any educated person can write simple code. Does not mean anything.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:What is it with the bullshit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, it means yet another high-profile celebrity learned to regurgitate simple code that is not even complicated enough to have bugs. Professional scientists often code, and at a much higher level, but still benefit greatly from having an actual coder do it.

      This whole "make everybody a coder" bullshit is just a stunt by the tech industry to make coders cheaper. It's not like they care about actual coder quality anyway. The more the merrier.

    2. Re:What is it with the bullshit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This whole "make everybody a coder" bullshit is just a stunt by the tech industry to make coders cheaper. It's not like they care about actual coder quality anyway. The more the merrier.

      You could very well be right, but consider another perspective. Maybe it is more "make it less mysterious" so people are less likely to be fooled. For example, I watch videos on how stuff is made, not because I want to manufacture stuff, but to remove the mystery. Or maybe I read a book on playing the guitar so I can have a better appreciation for someone who practiced enough to play well.

      Think about HR hiring a software developer. Do you want them to pick the first person who spits up the most buzzwords or to be able to see through the jargon and pick a good candidate?

      But yes, the Programmer Pope sure does sound like a PR stunt.