Editing Magnifica Humanitas: A Plain-Language Overview (section)

=== Technology exists for people ===

The Perl community has always been deeply concerned with tools.

Perl itself is a tool.

CPAN is an enormous collection of tools.

Compilers, editors, test frameworks, build systems, package managers, databases, web frameworks, GUI libraries, source-control systems, cloud services, and artificial intelligence all extend what programmers can accomplish.

The Virtuous Programmer Initiative does not reject these tools.

Neither does ''Magnifica Humanitas'' reject technological development.

The important question is one of '''order'''.

The tool must remain ordered toward the good of the person.

This is directly connected with the virtue we call '''Good Order'''.

Good Order is not merely tidy formatting or architectural neatness. It asks whether relationships among tools, people, institutions, responsibilities, and ends have been arranged properly.

A build system should serve the programmer.

An application should serve the user.

Automation should serve human work.

An institution should serve the community for which it exists.

Artificial intelligence should assist human judgment rather than provide an excuse to abandon judgment.

A business should earn money by providing something of genuine value rather than treating users as raw material.

When those relationships are reversed, technological order becomes disorder even if the underlying machinery is technically impressive.