Poxy old computers (was RE: [extropy-chat] SPACE: Spirit Prob lems)

[Emlyn O'regan]

Adrian wrote:
> --- Anders Sandberg <asa at nada.kth.se> wrote:
> > Each step seems to be a letting go. From handwritten
> > machine code to
> > assembler that is compiled, to high-level languages,
> > to software living in
> > an operating system, linking with other people's
> > code, computers and data,
> > and then having other systems generate code and the
> > code change itself.
> > Each time we give up control and certainty for
> > flexibility and ability.
> 
> Which runs counter to commercial software development.
> Who's going to QA the beast?  Who's going to certify
> its utility for certain services it's sold to perform?

Read those licenses on your existing shrink wrapped software one more
time... no one is foolish enough, even today, to warrant that any software
sold will *actually work as intended*. Sometimes they even deny that there
is an intention behind the software.

Emlyn