5 ms·

All the software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working.

diggan 7y ago
That's a grand assumption :) Who knows whos GitHub code will be included in the "Big MasterScript" that is written into the consciousness of the universe in the future, making it forever. I know, far out there and in theory, I agree with you, everything is temporary and nothing is forever. But who knows, maybe in the future, things will no longer be ephemeral.
- sjilo 7y ago
  Probably left-pad
solarkraft 7y ago
Like ourselves and the rest of the universe.
- sneak 7y ago
  I think that thinking this way is a coping mechanism in response to the massive loss of control we experience being subject to the whims of giant corporate platforms deciding what we can and cannot run on our own devices. The alternative is to face how insanely unfair and belittling it is to have bought an app and a device and due to circumstances out of your control arbitrarily no longer be permitted to run “your” app on “your” device.
  - travisjungroth 7y ago
    You think that being aware of our own inevitable deaths, and the eventual end of the universe, is a coping mechanism to avoid the unbearable reality of closed software platforms? Am I talking to Richard Stallman?
    - solarkraft 7y ago
      You never know.
- flingo 7y ago
  If humans discover a way to defeat entropy, even at a limited scale, whatever device is created to preserve information into the era of a universe solely made of black holes and hawking radiation will be capable of running doom. I fully expect the last computer to ever be built by humans to still be able to load original .wads.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Unless you're a game developer! Lots of people are still playing Super Mario Brothers daily! They're running it in an emulator now, most probably, but all of the original code is doing the work. Obviously it won't outlast the heat death of the universe or anything, but I'd say it's has the potential to live as long as any other human creation.
romwell 7y ago
You can say that about anything we do. However, at my previous job I integrated an LFBGS[1] implementation into our production code. That was written in the early 80s in Fortran '77. The code outlived all hardware that it ran on when it was first written (we ran it on an OpenMP cluster for a scientific-computing problem related to lithographic mask optimization), if not its authors. It will continue to exist, and run, for a very long time. Sure, all software is ephemeral. But as you say so, you probably used SciPy/NumPy. Deep inside, there's an implementation of LAPACK/BLAS doing the heavy lifting for you[2]. It started in 1979, and is still kicking. (And it's still in FORTRAN) [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprograms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprogra...
- OwlsParlay 7y ago
  Wow, I'm actually using some of the C++ code based off of MINPACK for one of our current projects at work. It is quite humbling to realise this dates back so far.

That's a grand assumption :) Who knows whos GitHub code will be included in the "Big MasterScript" that is written into the consciousness of the universe in the future, making it forever. I know, far out there and in theory, I agree with you, everything is temporary and nothing is forever. But who knows, maybe in the future, things will no longer be ephemeral.

sjilo 7y ago
Probably left-pad

solarkraft 7y ago

Like ourselves and the rest of the universe.

sneak 7y ago
I think that thinking this way is a coping mechanism in response to the massive loss of control we experience being subject to the whims of giant corporate platforms deciding what we can and cannot run on our own devices. The alternative is to face how insanely unfair and belittling it is to have bought an app and a device and due to circumstances out of your control arbitrarily no longer be permitted to run “your” app on “your” device.
- travisjungroth 7y ago
  You think that being aware of our own inevitable deaths, and the eventual end of the universe, is a coping mechanism to avoid the unbearable reality of closed software platforms? Am I talking to Richard Stallman?
  - solarkraft 7y ago
    You never know.
flingo 7y ago
If humans discover a way to defeat entropy, even at a limited scale, whatever device is created to preserve information into the era of a universe solely made of black holes and hawking radiation will be capable of running doom. I fully expect the last computer to ever be built by humans to still be able to load original .wads.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Unless you're a game developer! Lots of people are still playing Super Mario Brothers daily! They're running it in an emulator now, most probably, but all of the original code is doing the work. Obviously it won't outlast the heat death of the universe or anything, but I'd say it's has the potential to live as long as any other human creation.

romwell 7y ago

You can say that about anything we do. However, at my previous job I integrated an LFBGS[1] implementation into our production code. That was written in the early 80s in Fortran '77. The code outlived all hardware that it ran on when it was first written (we ran it on an OpenMP cluster for a scientific-computing problem related to lithographic mask optimization), if not its authors. It will continue to exist, and run, for a very long time. Sure, all software is ephemeral. But as you say so, you probably used SciPy/NumPy. Deep inside, there's an implementation of LAPACK/BLAS doing the heavy lifting for you[2]. It started in 1979, and is still kicking. (And it's still in FORTRAN) [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprograms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprogra...

OwlsParlay 7y ago
Wow, I'm actually using some of the C++ code based off of MINPACK for one of our current projects at work. It is quite humbling to realise this dates back so far.