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This is a minor plot point in the sci fi novel "A deepness in the sky", where a spacefaring culture has their systems built on top of so many, ancestral layers

This is a minor plot point in the sci fi novel "A deepness in the sky", where a spacefaring culture has their systems built on top of so many, ancestral layers of software, that there is a career called "code archeologist" that dives deep into the bowels of systems to find undocumented functionality.

iforgotpassword 7y ago
I totally can imagine how in the future there are these archeologists among all those JavaScript devs working for them trying to understand that weird language that Chrome was once written in, still in use decades after the company that built it went away. Countless attempts to improve anything in that ancient code base failed since by that point, every little quirk that browser exposed was depended on by some essential system running a power plant, hospital or internet core infrastructure. So the archeologists rather try to find even more quirks that can be abused for performance.
Tsiklon 7y ago
This is also a point in the Warhammer 40,000 Lore. some 18,000 years from now, Humanity advanced science and technology to nearly godlike extremes, and suffered a fully regressive collapse lasting close to another 10,000 years. The fallout of this means that all 'modern' technology is operated upon by tech-priests, who blindly perform rituals upon equipment to ensure it's 'machine spirit' is satisfied. This ensures that the equipment will properly function. All knowledge as to how the most advanced equipment operates is lost - all that's left is how to produce some of the lesser pieces. Caches of templates to produce standardised equipment are highly treasured. These ancient and supremely advanced caches produce extremely detailed designs for the entire supply chain required to build a single item. A template to provide for a slightly sharper knife is as desirable to the Imperium as another template to provide for a 55 Meters tall armoured war machine.

iforgotpassword 7y ago

I totally can imagine how in the future there are these archeologists among all those JavaScript devs working for them trying to understand that weird language that Chrome was once written in, still in use decades after the company that built it went away. Countless attempts to improve anything in that ancient code base failed since by that point, every little quirk that browser exposed was depended on by some essential system running a power plant, hospital or internet core infrastructure. So the archeologists rather try to find even more quirks that can be abused for performance.

Tsiklon 7y ago

This is also a point in the Warhammer 40,000 Lore. some 18,000 years from now, Humanity advanced science and technology to nearly godlike extremes, and suffered a fully regressive collapse lasting close to another 10,000 years. The fallout of this means that all 'modern' technology is operated upon by tech-priests, who blindly perform rituals upon equipment to ensure it's 'machine spirit' is satisfied. This ensures that the equipment will properly function. All knowledge as to how the most advanced equipment operates is lost - all that's left is how to produce some of the lesser pieces. Caches of templates to produce standardised equipment are highly treasured. These ancient and supremely advanced caches produce extremely detailed designs for the entire supply chain required to build a single item. A template to provide for a slightly sharper knife is as desirable to the Imperium as another template to provide for a 55 Meters tall armoured war machine.