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The idea of archiving machine learning models really struck a chord. It reminds me of Asimov’s Foundation, where the empire has collapsed and people don’t know

The idea of archiving machine learning models really struck a chord. It reminds me of Asimov’s Foundation, where the empire has collapsed and people don’t know how to use the crumbling technology and treat it as magic.

drivers99 4y ago
Similarly, Jonathan Blow on "Preventing the Collapse of Civilization"[1] which is about software getting more complicated and worse at the same time. I just noticed he also brought up Foundation in that talk. (Between this, The Thirty Million Line Problem video by Casey Muratori[2] and running across Forth, specifically jonesforth, I've also been thinking of building my own tech stack from scratch, or at least playing around with it while collecting more and more references about doing so.) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk
RajT88 4y ago
Most people already treat current technology as magic. You could even make the point that for most techies, we treat tech as magic, but we call it "abstraction layers". We don't care about what's underneath as long as it always works.
- robinsonb5 4y ago
  > ...as long as it always works. ...as long as it works for about 18 months. I'm losing count of the number of projects I've seen recently which have build instructions which start with "you need this specific version of this particular build tool or compiler"....
BirAdam 4y ago
The main thing I would point out is that it is just as important to record what ought not be repeated as it is to preserve that which is good. Simple, understandable software is a good thing. Software which is performant is a good thing. Software which solves the user's problem is the most important. We have examples of software which are all three of those things. We also have software which is none of the three. The biggest thing, if we are thinking long term, is that we should likely remember to emphasize that which can be maintained overtime by a small number of people, or indeed just one person. We should also emphasize machines that can be understood by a small team, or indeed just a single individual. Until recently, I would have said that all of this is alarmist.

drivers99 4y ago

Similarly, Jonathan Blow on "Preventing the Collapse of Civilization"[1] which is about software getting more complicated and worse at the same time. I just noticed he also brought up Foundation in that talk. (Between this, The Thirty Million Line Problem video by Casey Muratori[2] and running across Forth, specifically jonesforth, I've also been thinking of building my own tech stack from scratch, or at least playing around with it while collecting more and more references about doing so.) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk

RajT88 4y ago

Most people already treat current technology as magic. You could even make the point that for most techies, we treat tech as magic, but we call it "abstraction layers". We don't care about what's underneath as long as it always works.

robinsonb5 4y ago
> ...as long as it always works. ...as long as it works for about 18 months. I'm losing count of the number of projects I've seen recently which have build instructions which start with "you need this specific version of this particular build tool or compiler"....

BirAdam 4y ago

The main thing I would point out is that it is just as important to record what ought not be repeated as it is to preserve that which is good. Simple, understandable software is a good thing. Software which is performant is a good thing. Software which solves the user's problem is the most important. We have examples of software which are all three of those things. We also have software which is none of the three. The biggest thing, if we are thinking long term, is that we should likely remember to emphasize that which can be maintained overtime by a small number of people, or indeed just one person. We should also emphasize machines that can be understood by a small team, or indeed just a single individual. Until recently, I would have said that all of this is alarmist.