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> So we end up doing manual certification work everytime we release or publish a new version of software, for performance, fault tolerance, etc. What can human
by jacques_chester 11y ago
> So we end up doing manual certification work everytime we release or publish a new version of software, for performance, fault tolerance, etc.
What can humans do, sitting at a computer, that software can't be written to do?
Before other nitpickers derail this question, I'm talking about validating a software product, not hard AI.
- akkartik 11y agoWe don't need to think about AI. I'd rephrase your question like this: What can the author do, sitting at a computer, that later readers can't undo? When phrased that way the answer is obvious: a lot. Like multiply two large numbers together, or obfuscate a program to make its meaning less clear. Both are in principle possible to undo, but the "load factor" can be arbitrarily large, making the effort for the 'reader' entirely uneconomic. If even a human can't undo some things that the author did, how can we expect the computer to do so?
- jacques_chester 11y agoI'm afraid I don't follow you at all.
- akkartik 11y agoSorry, I misunderstood what you were replying to. I'd change my answer to: nothing at all in the context of manual testing. And yet in practice the answer so far seems different from our in-principle argument. I'm trying to make principle and practice line up better.