I don’t like to think of software as eating the world; rather just modelling it.

It’s modelling our personalities and relationships. It’s modelling how we tell stories through words, music, and video and games. It’s modelling our money and how we interact with it. It’s modelling how we trust and look for social proof.

We now wear our software, live, breathe and sleep in it. We can almost touch it.

But software is imperfect: the map is not the territory. Models often over simplify and leave out the niches and edge cases, often excluding people without intending. It’s the job of the designers and builders to make sure that doesn’t happen.

A model is a simulation, and through that simulation we can create exponential outcomes. When those stay in the software space, they seem harmless. But when you reach a certain scale, that simulation can have unintended real-world effects.