The development of information technology is approached here through the concept of "externalization". Computer programming is seen as a step in the human history of externalization which can only be compared with the invention of speech and writing. But what happens to human knowledge when it is externalized as computer programs? Sinding-Larsen uses the development of the system of musical notation as a comparison. He finds complex relationships between the notation system and the music, as he does between computer technology and humankind's knowledge. As musical notation transformed music, computer technology transforms our knowledge.