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# Abstraction
Abstraction is an important concept in [programming](programming.md), [mathematics](math.md) and other fields of [science](science.md), philosophy and [art](art.md), which in simple words can be described as "viewing an issue from a distance", thinking in higher-level concepts, i.e. paying less attention to fine detail so that one can see the bigger picture. In programming for example we distinguish [programming languages](programming_language.md) of high and low level of abstraction, depending on how close they are "to the [hardware](hardware.md)" (e.g. [assembly](assembly.md) being low level, [JavaScript](js.md) being high level); in [art](art.md) high abstraction means portraying and capturing things such as ideas, feelings and emotions with shapes that may seem "distant", not resembling anything concrete or familiar. We usually talk about different **levels of abstraction**, depending on the "distance" we take in vieweing the issue at hand -- this concept may very well be demonstrated on [sciences](science.md): particle [physics](physics.md) researches the world at the lowest level of abstraction, in extreme close-up, for example by examining individual atoms that make up our brains, while [biology](biology.md) resides at a higher level of abstraction, viewing the brain at the level of individual cells, and finally [psychology](psychology.md) shows a very high level of abstraction because it looks at the brain from great distance and just studies its behavior.
Abstraction is an important concept in [programming](programming.md), [mathematics](math.md) and other fields of [science](science.md), [philosophy](philosophy.md) and [art](art.md), which in simple words can be described as "viewing an issue from a distance", thinking in higher-level concepts, i.e. paying less attention to fine detail so that one can see the bigger picture. In programming for example we distinguish [programming languages](programming_language.md) of high and low level of abstraction, depending on how close they are "to the [hardware](hardware.md)" (e.g. [assembly](assembly.md) being low level, [JavaScript](js.md) being high level); in [art](art.md) high abstraction means portraying and capturing things such as ideas, feelings and emotions with shapes that may seem "distant", not resembling anything concrete or familiar. We usually talk about different **levels of abstraction**, depending on the "distance" we take in vieweing the issue at hand -- this concept may very well be demonstrated on [sciences](science.md): particle [physics](physics.md) researches the world at the lowest level of abstraction, in extreme close-up, for example by examining individual atoms that make up our brains, while [biology](biology.md) resides at a higher level of abstraction, viewing the brain at the level of individual cells, and finally [psychology](psychology.md) shows a very high level of abstraction because it looks at the brain from great distance and just studies its behavior.
In mainstream [programming](programming.md) education it is generally taught to "abstract as much as possible" because that's aligned with the [capitalist](capitalism.md) way of technology -- high abstraction is easy to handle for incompetent programming monkeys, it helps preventing them from making damage by employing billions of safety mechanisms, it allows them to quickly learn to do poorly what should be done properly, it also perpetuates the cult of never stopping layering of the abstraction sandwich, creating [bloat](bloat.md), [hype](hype.md), bullshit jobs, it makes computers slower, constantly outdated and so drives software [consumerism](consumerism.md). As with everything in capitalism, new abstractions are products hyped on grounds of immediate benefit: creating more comfort, being something new and "[modern](modern.md)", increasing "[productivity](productivity_cult.md)", lowering "barriers of entry" so that ANYONE CAN NOW BE A PROGRAMMER without even knowing anything about computers (try to imagine this e.g. in the field of medicine) etc. -- of course, long term negative effects are completely ignored. Abstraction is useful but what's happening here is twisting its meaning: instead of **ignoring details** where it's acceptable and useful, abstraction is now used as an excuse meaning **ignorance of details**, i.e. whereas originally a programmer knew the details and would decide to ignore them where it's of benefit, nowadays the programmer doesn't know the details at all because he thinks he is allowed to by the existence of abstraction, and so he ignores them in any situation. **This is extremely wrong.** It is basically why technology has been on such a huge downfall in the latest decades and why so many incompetent people flooded the industry. Opposing this, [LRS](lrs.md) advocates to employ only as little abstraction as needed, so as to support [minimalism](minimalism.md). **Too much abstraction is bad.** For example a widely used general purpose programming language should basically only have as much abstraction as to allow [portability](portability.md), it should definitely NOT succumb high abstraction such as [object obsessed programming](oop.md).