☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆

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Joined 5 years ago
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Cake day: January 18th, 2020

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  • I very much expect that programming discipline is about to change quite drastically. I expect programmers will have a role that’s somewhere between a mathematician and a business analyst. The core aspect of the process that requires a human in the loop is the verification step. You need a human to actually understand what the requirements are and then ensure that the software meets these requirements. I strongly expect that writing formal contracts that LLMs will fulfill will be the way we develop a lot of software going forward.







  • I expect that programmers are going to incresingly focus on defining specifications while LLMs will handle the grunt work. Imagine declaring what the program is doing, e.g., “This API endpoint must return user data in <500ms, using ≤50MB memory, with O(n log n) complexity”, and an LLM generates solutions that adhere to those rules. It could be an approach similar to the way genetic algorithms work, where LLM can try some initial solutions, then select ones that are close to the spec, and iterate until the solution works well enough.

    I’d also argue that this is a natural evolution. We don’t hand-assemble machine code today, most people aren’t writing stuff like sorting algorithms from scratc, and so on. I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine that future devs won’t fuss with low-level logic. LLMs can be seen as “constraint solvers” akin to a chess engine, but for code. It’s also worth noting that Modern tools already do this in pockets. AWS Lambda lets you define “Run this function in 1GB RAM, timeout after 15s”, imagine scaling that philosophy to entire systems.







  • A device I’d really like to have would be something like a phone but would replace the need for having any cloud services. Imagine if it had a really large drive where you could just keep all your media, and if it had an API that’s something along the lines of NextCloud where it could expose calendar, contacts, email, music streaming, photo gallery, video streaming, etc. that your other devices could connect to.

    Since you carry your phone around everywhere anyways, there would no longer be any need to have cloud services because their whole raison d’etre is to act as a central server that allows you to sync data across different devices. If you just carry the server on you, that problem goes away entirely.

    You could also have a dock with a backup drive where it would just automatically sync when you plug it in at the end of the day. This way if the drive died on it, you’d always have a backup ready that you could swap in.

    Another neat thing you could do would be to have a dock in a shape of a laptop with a big screen, keyboard, maybe faster CPU, more RAM, a good video card. This way you wouldn’t need a separate laptop, you could just plug your phone in the dock and voila.

    This approach would result in way better privacy because all your data would always be on you as opposed to some server somewhere. It would also be way more reliable since you wouldn’t have to worry about network connectivity. You’d still need some external services like a mail server, but these would just be endpoints you use for communication.



  • Exactly, it’s becoming clear that the US will only continue getting more openly belligerent under Trump, but I’d argue the problem goes deeper. Erratic politics driven by short-term electoral cycles and mounting internal contradictions make it impossible to build any long-term trust with the US. A strategy that one administration pursues can be completely reversed by another. By contrast, China’s single-party system has a demonstrated ability to carry out decades-long strategic initiatives projecting stability and consistency. This makes China an invaluable partner for any nations hedging against the US going forward.






  • That plays a role obviously, but there’s a bigger issue here as well that much of the research is driven by private interests. Even universities are reliant on private capital to operate. China’s rapid technological progress stems from having state-driven R&D and centralized planning. The benefits are now becoming evident in China’s leadership in AI-driven manufacturing, clean energy, and quantum computing, and many other areas. Incidentally, Bloomberg wrote about this just recently.

    On the other hand, Western progress is hindered by fragmented policies, short-term priorities, and constant infighting. Despite similar R&D investments, China’s scale and strategic patience yield greater returns, particularly in STEM fields and infrastructure development. This trajectory will likely secure China’s leadership in technology going forward. The future belongs to those who build it fastest.