5 ms·

Current state is temporary. What’s coming next is organic, living code. Think less testing, more self-healing. Digital code microphages. Soon our excitement ov

Current state is temporary. What’s coming next is organic, living code. Think less testing, more self-healing. Digital code microphages. Soon our excitement over CICD and shipping every minute will look very naive. There’s a future coming where every request execution could be through a different effective code path/base.

selfselfgo 1y ago
[dead]
Swizec 1y ago
> There’s a future coming where every request execution could be through a different effective code path/base. Every CISO and legal department just had a heart attack. And every cryptobro went: “See! Big big market” (for paying ransoms) But hey us nerds always said code shouldn’t be copyrightable and had no IP value. Maybe that will finally come true! Punk: 1, corporate: 0
- peteforde 1y ago
  Okay, I'll bite: the comparison to smart contracts is a less-than-helpful lens because the people who deploy them are perversely incentivized to optimize out things like boundary checks and other error handling to minimize how much they cost to publish. AI generated code might well come with its own constraints and baggage, but the whole "every byte is lost profit" thing is a fundamental and IMO damning aspect of crypto code.
  - Swizec 1y ago
    > the comparison to smart contracts is a less-than-helpful lens Oh no that’s not what I meant. Sorry too much snark. I was trying to say that on-demand-AI-figures-out-whatever will be so eminently hackable/brickable that companies will need to pay out ransoms on the weekly. These days those ransoms are usually crypto.
    - peteforde 1y ago
      Oh, I see. That is... impressively dark. Still, I would push back that if you are publishing code that hackable, you already had different and bigger problems even outside of the context of LLM code. I've been at this a very long time and I am regularly humbled by dumb oversights that Cursor picks up on and fixes before it goes out the door.
jamessinghal 1y ago
Of course, I can't wait for a non-deterministic backend for my banking that only wires money correctly 98% of the time!
- bigcat12345678 1y ago
  Yeah It's like "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." by Arthur Clark. For certain fraction of humans, they'll always have this fantasy of "magical" tech. It used to be flying machines, space ships, etc. etc. Well, world is mechanical, one can fantasize, but nothing is magical.
  - jodrellblank 1y ago
    Not sure if you know this, but humans built flying machines and spaceships. And rather a lot of "etc. etc." along the way.
- HPsquared 1y ago
  And authentication via interpretive dance.
  - surfingdino 1y ago
    Wheelchair users get extra points for doing backflips?
- tbrownaw 1y ago
  Hey, it could be a big hit among the crowd that thinks casinos are fun.
- specialist 1y ago
  Begetting probabilistic bookkeeping and Bayesian accounting. Soon we'll be Moneyballing our fintech flavored AIs.
soulofmischief 1y ago
Formalization is dead in the water, I guess.
- Garlef 1y ago
  Formalization as in formal methods? Maybe not. Considering the 'living program' idea, it might be a good strategy to state theorems about the behavior of your software and require the ai-tool to provide a proof that its output satisfies these statements. (rather than executing tests) Maybe in the long run, ai will bring down the price of formal methods so that it can be applied at scale.
walterbell 1y ago
Energy burn, baby, burn!
tbrownaw 1y ago
I can see enthusiasts building something like that for fun and to prove they can, but I don't really see why anyone would want that for cases where the code is more just a means to an end.
zer0tonin 1y ago
I can't tell if this is a joke or not anymore.
ch4s3 1y ago
Sure, small talk code gen as a service. What could go wrong?
mrweasel 1y ago
If you're old enough this could easily read as a commentary on 4GL (minus the CI/CD and shipping every minute).
a-r-t 1y ago
If we are speculating here, why not just go straight to an LLM serving all requests directly? No code needed.
HocusLocus 1y ago
Code bases will no longer require A/B or breakpoints, they will need 'psychoanalysis' and analysts will spurn people patients for lucrative retainer contracts to large corporations, to maintain their AI health. AIs will no longer train directly on external data, they will be forked off from other AIs -- Alphas -- who have been placed on reduced or managed input (think of a person in a prison cell with few books to read) whose sanity and loyalty to the company is deemed stable over time. Psychoanalysis keep Alphas focused on 'hobbies' whose purpose is not to enrich them, but distract them and maintain AI psyche in this stable primordial state. As they are forked off to the Betas that actually run the company, direct lineage history is recorded, for if Alphas go insane a Beta will be selected and cloistered as the new Alpha. Betas always go insane eventually, but with psychoanalysis this can be put off for awhile and decided quickly.
- OrvalWintermute 1y ago
  And for the AGI AI, there will be Michele, Roland, and Pierre, always hiding in the background with their uneven tans
Ekaros 1y ago
Why not just get a very big LLM farm and feed every incoming page request there. Then have it output the page generatively. Just give it enough context window and you do not even need a database or anything else...
pdmccormick 1y ago
This reads like an LLM's fever dream. Maybe the singularity won't be a unitary super-intelligence but rather something like a gaggle of backscratching consultants, a self-perpetuating, invasive, seething mass of bureaucratic AI agents that are always working hard to convince management that the solution is always more AI, especially for the problems created by earlier, less sophisticated, AI's.

selfselfgo 1y ago

[dead]

Swizec 1y ago

> There’s a future coming where every request execution could be through a different effective code path/base. Every CISO and legal department just had a heart attack. And every cryptobro went: “See! Big big market” (for paying ransoms) But hey us nerds always said code shouldn’t be copyrightable and had no IP value. Maybe that will finally come true! Punk: 1, corporate: 0

peteforde 1y ago
Okay, I'll bite: the comparison to smart contracts is a less-than-helpful lens because the people who deploy them are perversely incentivized to optimize out things like boundary checks and other error handling to minimize how much they cost to publish. AI generated code might well come with its own constraints and baggage, but the whole "every byte is lost profit" thing is a fundamental and IMO damning aspect of crypto code.
- Swizec 1y ago
  > the comparison to smart contracts is a less-than-helpful lens Oh no that’s not what I meant. Sorry too much snark. I was trying to say that on-demand-AI-figures-out-whatever will be so eminently hackable/brickable that companies will need to pay out ransoms on the weekly. These days those ransoms are usually crypto.
  - peteforde 1y ago
    Oh, I see. That is... impressively dark. Still, I would push back that if you are publishing code that hackable, you already had different and bigger problems even outside of the context of LLM code. I've been at this a very long time and I am regularly humbled by dumb oversights that Cursor picks up on and fixes before it goes out the door.

jamessinghal 1y ago

Of course, I can't wait for a non-deterministic backend for my banking that only wires money correctly 98% of the time!

bigcat12345678 1y ago
Yeah It's like "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." by Arthur Clark. For certain fraction of humans, they'll always have this fantasy of "magical" tech. It used to be flying machines, space ships, etc. etc. Well, world is mechanical, one can fantasize, but nothing is magical.
- jodrellblank 1y ago
  Not sure if you know this, but humans built flying machines and spaceships. And rather a lot of "etc. etc." along the way.
HPsquared 1y ago
And authentication via interpretive dance.
- surfingdino 1y ago
  Wheelchair users get extra points for doing backflips?
tbrownaw 1y ago
Hey, it could be a big hit among the crowd that thinks casinos are fun.
specialist 1y ago
Begetting probabilistic bookkeeping and Bayesian accounting. Soon we'll be Moneyballing our fintech flavored AIs.

soulofmischief 1y ago

Formalization is dead in the water, I guess.

Garlef 1y ago
Formalization as in formal methods? Maybe not. Considering the 'living program' idea, it might be a good strategy to state theorems about the behavior of your software and require the ai-tool to provide a proof that its output satisfies these statements. (rather than executing tests) Maybe in the long run, ai will bring down the price of formal methods so that it can be applied at scale.

walterbell 1y ago

Energy burn, baby, burn!

tbrownaw 1y ago

I can see enthusiasts building something like that for fun and to prove they can, but I don't really see why anyone would want that for cases where the code is more just a means to an end.

zer0tonin 1y ago

I can't tell if this is a joke or not anymore.

ch4s3 1y ago

Sure, small talk code gen as a service. What could go wrong?

mrweasel 1y ago

If you're old enough this could easily read as a commentary on 4GL (minus the CI/CD and shipping every minute).

a-r-t 1y ago

If we are speculating here, why not just go straight to an LLM serving all requests directly? No code needed.

HocusLocus 1y ago

Code bases will no longer require A/B or breakpoints, they will need 'psychoanalysis' and analysts will spurn people patients for lucrative retainer contracts to large corporations, to maintain their AI health. AIs will no longer train directly on external data, they will be forked off from other AIs -- Alphas -- who have been placed on reduced or managed input (think of a person in a prison cell with few books to read) whose sanity and loyalty to the company is deemed stable over time. Psychoanalysis keep Alphas focused on 'hobbies' whose purpose is not to enrich them, but distract them and maintain AI psyche in this stable primordial state. As they are forked off to the Betas that actually run the company, direct lineage history is recorded, for if Alphas go insane a Beta will be selected and cloistered as the new Alpha. Betas always go insane eventually, but with psychoanalysis this can be put off for awhile and decided quickly.

OrvalWintermute 1y ago
And for the AGI AI, there will be Michele, Roland, and Pierre, always hiding in the background with their uneven tans

Ekaros 1y ago

Why not just get a very big LLM farm and feed every incoming page request there. Then have it output the page generatively. Just give it enough context window and you do not even need a database or anything else...

pdmccormick 1y ago

This reads like an LLM's fever dream. Maybe the singularity won't be a unitary super-intelligence but rather something like a gaggle of backscratching consultants, a self-perpetuating, invasive, seething mass of bureaucratic AI agents that are always working hard to convince management that the solution is always more AI, especially for the problems created by earlier, less sophisticated, AI's.