this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

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In today's episode, Yud tries to predict the future of computer science.

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[–] corbin@awful.systems 16 points 1 year ago (19 children)

Yud tried to describe a compiler, but ended up with a tulpa. I wonder why that keeps happening~

Yud would be horrified to learn about INTERCAL (WP, Esolangs), which has required syntax for politely asking the compiler to accept input. The compiler is expressly permitted to refuse inputs for being impolite or excessively polite.

I will not blame anybody for giving up on reading this wall of text. I had to try maybe four or five times, fighting the cringe. Most unrealistic part is having the TA know any better than the student. Yud is completely lacking in the light-hearted brevity that makes this sort of Broccoli Man & Panda Woman rant bearable.

I can somewhat sympathize, in the sense that there are currently multiple frameworks where Python code is intermixed with magic comments which are replaced with more code by ChatGPT during a compilation step. However, this is clearly a party trick which lacks the sheer reproducibility and predictability required for programming.

Y'know, I'll take his implicit wager. I bet that, in 2027, the typical CS student will still be taught with languages whose reference implementations use either:

  1. the classic 1970s-style workflow of parsing, tree transformation, and instruction selection; or
  2. the classic 1980s-style workflow of parsing, bytecode generation, and JIT.
[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 10 points 1 year ago

I can somewhat sympathize, in the sense that there are currently multiple frameworks where Python code is intermixed with magic comments which are replaced with more code by ChatGPT during a compilation step. However, this is clearly a party trick which lacks the sheer reproducibility and predictability required for programming.

He probably just saw a github copilot demo on tiktok and took it personally.

[–] cstross@wandering.shop 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@corbin You missed the best bit: one of the current INTERCAL compilers, CLC-INTERCAL (for a superset of the language which adds a bunch more insanity) is implemented IN INTERCAL! It's self-compiling. Also object-oriented, has quantum-indeterminate operators, and a computed COME FROM statement (also with quantum indeterminacy).

I think we should organize a fundraiser to pay CLC-INTERCAL's developer @Uilebheist to visit Yud and melt his brain.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 1 year ago

Ow great you mentioning this has already had one sneerclubber have her brain leak out of her ears.

Have you learned nothing? YOU DO NOT THINK IN SUFFICIENT DETAIL ABOUT DANGEROUS IDEAS ... TREADKILL ;)

[–] MeiLin@rubber.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@cstross @corbin @Uilebheist

> quantum-indeterminate operators

Wait... What?

[–] flexasync@hachyderm.io 7 points 1 year ago

@corbin it's a fucking _compiler_. What working or teaching programmer would accept "AI wrangling" in exchange for marginal improvements in the efficiency of the code that's output? Just chuck some more compute at it...

[–] bsdphk@fosstodon.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@corbin

Wait till you get to the calculated COME FROM ...

[–] nicksdrew@aus.social 5 points 1 year ago

@bsdphk @corbin don’t forget the hallowed PLEASE ABSTAIN FROM REINSTATE

[–] etchedpixels@mastodon.social 5 points 1 year ago

@corbin Probably still 5 years too soon but I would hope the 2027 CS student will be taught the usual engineering flow of specification, formal verification and safety analysis, design, some coding and what should be tiny bit of debug during validation at the end.

Reproducability is everything. If your binary isn't an exact match for the previous tested copy you are doing QA not production.

[–] RojCowles@techhub.social 4 points 1 year ago

@corbin

Heh "2030 : Computer Science departments across the globe are moved from the Sciences to Politics as under-grads no longer program computers they negotiate with them"

He said lifting ideas from a couple of SciFi novels wholesale.

[–] beige_alert@universeodon.com 4 points 1 year ago

@corbin anyone looking for a two hour podcast about INTERCAL (and who ISN'T?) can find one here https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/064

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