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That assumes that, future civilizations will be even interested in understanding our current codebases. I wonder if there will be code historians?


I am almost certain there will be because we already have people intensely interested in source code from the 50s and 60s.


Yeah, a great example is this presentation[1] about the Apollo guidance computer. The guy is really, really into it and it just makes the presentation amazing.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM


I predict future "crypto-archaeologists" will comb over our primitive source code like Medieval manuscripts, and will run our programs in quantum computer simulators to exercise all paths, and discover bugs we never suspected.


"Why did the ancient programmers (blessed be their names), have such a proclivity for always greeting the earth?"


It is believed that ancient computersmiths were a superstitious caste. They believed in an entity known as "World", and it was custom to greet this deity as both a recognition of its power and an invocation to receive it's divine favor. Computersmiths were also known to compose poetry documenting their capabilities. It was typical for computersmiths to update this prose, commonly referred to as a 'resume', upon successfully greeting World.


It’s surely a religious matter, the context is lost at this point but that our best estimate.


I don’t think quantum computers get you past the halting problem.


Thank you, now I feel preemtively ashamed


"I want my warp engines, Mr. Laforge." https://abstrusegoose.com/323




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