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Is that his essay that talks about how lisp knowledge can save future 9/11 attacks from happening? That’s a favorite of mine. Written right after the attacks.
by wahnfrieden 3y ago
Is that his essay that talks about how lisp knowledge can save future 9/11 attacks from happening?
That’s a favorite of mine. Written right after the attacks. But I wonder why he delisted it while still hosting the essay to make it hard to find but still accessible
- tjr225 3y ago[dead]
- kazinator 3y agoYou are almost certainly referring to this: https://www.paulgraham.com/hijack.html https://www.paulgraham.com/hijack.html Paul Graham compares the hijacking of an airplane to a buffer overflow attack. He doesn't claim that tools for writing more secure computer programs could prevent terrorists from hijacking a plane. He proposes the idea that some similar reasoning can be applied to preventing hijackings. It's not enough to monitor who gets on the airplane carrying what, but to separate the cockpit space from the passenger space.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoI know, that’s what I said his essay was about: Lisp knowledge would have prevented 9/11 and can prevent future hijacking attacks. Thanks for providing additional details - it's a treat to re-read his thoughts on 9/11
- kazinator 3y agoLikewise, knowledge of effective hijacking prevention techniques could be relevant in defensive program and system organization. I don't think his point is very good because array overruns in a heap can be exploitable. Lisps (and other kinds of run-times) don't necessarily separate code from data in their heaps.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoI agree the point is trash! It's interesting that he feels shame about the article enough to delist it, but still believes he has a useful point enough to leave it up without linking to it