"The code they write will be machine code, because they can compile their own abstract ideas themselves." This doesn't seem likely. Unless this alien species i

"The code they write will be machine code, because they can compile their own abstract ideas themselves." This doesn't seem likely. Unless this alien species is isolationist to the extreme, they'll need to communicate with others of their species. Therefore they need a language that can communicate high-level concepts, something assembly is not known to be good at doing. Or to put it another way, even though we communicate with our bodies in a very low-level way (sending neural impulses to contract or relax muscles), our language is very high level. We don't say, "Fire neuron 10212, fire neuron 39232...", we say, "Come over here, please." We don't think in terms of firing neuron either; that's a job for the low-level subconscious. In a similar way, I'd expect any artificial life form to have a language to express high level concepts, and "compile" with their subconscious.