“It takes 10 years to study, train and specialise in order to be a M.D that prescribes radiation therapy to people. It takes 3-4 years to do a Bachelor’s degree in order to be a programmer that codes the machine that blasts peoples with radiation.” I often open my OOP course with this sentence, trying to motivate SE students to take their programming skills seriously. A couple of days ago the New-York Times published a gruesome proof why that sentence presents a real problem. Apparently, software and configuration errors in linear accelerators (the machines that blast patients with radiation) caused numerous injuries and several death cases. Now it’s official: Bad code kills.
Programming began as a merry hackers’ hobby, and evolved into a quick way to make money – We saw two high-tech bubble bursts in the last 10 years to prove the second. Somewhere in the process, software sneaked into each and every piece of machinery that we have, from phones to war machines. However, the software industry never paused and reflected on how to take itself more seriously. People started to be afraid of machines (See the terminator and Matrix series for a proof), but they are pointing their fingers in the wrong direction. Machines don’t kill people. People who program machines kill people.
Btw, credit where it’s due: Reody Green saw it coming. Read his wonderful article on “How to Write Unmaintainable Code” and the appendix “Operation Termite”.
Human stupidity is omnipresent in space and time; in fact, I tend to agree with a cynical statement that “95% of any given population are idiots”. What tech and a promise of easy money do is leveraging it. 100 years ago a typical result would be a piece of metal going to scrap, but now we are getting all these kinds of crap. People radiated to death, stock markets crashing… I wonder what comes next.
hi please let me know how are defining idiot ?