Ok I see. I still find that this kind of argument relies on hidden assumptions. By this argument we are saying that Java doesn't actually exist, and it's all

Ok I see. I still find that this kind of argument relies on hidden assumptions. By this argument we are saying that Java doesn't actually exist, and it's all C with a fancy DSL. :-) You could maybe write some kind of translator in C to emit JVM bytecode, and have it recompile itself at runtime. The problem with that line is that it is a lot of work and then to be fair we should allow a similar effort to be applied to a JVM like HotSpot for an apples-to-apples comparison. Then remember the original thesis, which is that we claimed Java was only faster for specific usecases. That is a very wiggly claim that I bet could nearly always be found true. Anyway, fun to think about either way.