Is it even possible to have a magical 'finish my app' button; DARPA says yes

If the mad-science division of the US military has it their way, you will only have to write the base of that new app. or feature you want to develop and Darpa’s Pliny project will do the rest.

How it works essentially is that when you have a hole in the code that you need to fill (functionality-wise), this AI will sort through billions of lines of open sourced code to find exactly what you are looking for, match its syntax to what you have, and polish it to boot.

Now I know it sounds crazy, but it seems like it would work well enough for simple apps, but it might be a much more difficult to use it for the development of 3D apps. like Blender. We’ll just wait and see.

Thoughts?

:smiley:

add in quantum…

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” (Then: “get used to it.™”)

When I first became enamored with “this very-crazy thing called ‘a digital computer,’” the typical piece of equipment occupied an air-conditioned room. “The Internet” was MILNET, soon to be called (in part) ARPANET, and Al Gore was not yet in power.

“The world” was not yet “connected” … certainly not gratuitously, let alone obsessively “connected.”

(Believe it or not … people “at dinner” simply ate their dinners, and never gave the slightest though to photographing it …) :eek:

“Software development,” then, was still a custom-made™ endeavor. Implicit in the assumptions of that time was the notion that “the custom-made (of course) software that your business depended on™” must, necessarily, be produced by some Craftsman geographically-close to you.

Even though, from a world-wide point of view, there must exist, somewhere, someone of comparable technical skills who could be lured into producing the same work-product For Less,™ such a “world-wide point of view” did not yet exist. Thus, we did not have the phenomenon of “the world-wide Race To The Bottom.™”

But still, the Truth remains: “at the end of the day, it is just a <<Perl|PHP|Ruby|Java|…>> source-code file,” and if at the end of the day an aggregation of “custom-made efforts <<anywhere>>” can be made to serve “the underlying business-need <<everywhere>>,” then all of us will merely find ourselves to be displaced: by the 21st Century “Spinning Jenny,” “Cotton Gin,” or “Bessemer Converter,” or for that matter, “gun-stock lathe.”

No, we should not pretend to be surprised . . .

Yes, it is possible to have a “magical finish-my-app” button.

“Custom gun-smiths” around the nation found their lifetime-perfected skills obliterated by the work of Eli Whitney. The “seemingly inexhaustible” US Army demand for their trade-skills evaporated overnight, never to return. They went from “people who could comfortably charge whatever they wanted” to “people who could not find a job at all.”

There used to be this notion that the advancement of technology would continually lead to an ever increasing amount of free time. Which is to say if technology makes it so that we can do eight hours of work in just four hours then we only need to work four hours and still have the same amount of whatever available for our consumption.

What actually happened? Technology made it so that we could do eight hours of work in just four hours, but instead of working less for the same we ended up just working the same for more, now we do sixteen hours of work over eight hours.

This suggests that people would rather have more stuff than more life to live. Not that it’s either here nor there, everyone has a certain amount of time in this life to spend on whatever it is they so choose.

“But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” -Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday?

what about a zero hour work day?

What if we work for fun… when not having other fun?

@BPR: I believe people are not unlike any other aspect of the universe except that, unlike literally everything else in the universe, we don’t do the things we desire to do, but instead do the things we’re told to believe we should do. Bees collect nectar because they desire nectar, beavers collect wood and build dams because they desire to do so. People serve fast food not because they desire to serve over demanding ungreatful customers, but because otherwise they’d be spat upon for being unemployed.

Personally I program, model, texture & animate because I enjoy doing those things.

But for you to be able to do that someone has to mine the materials needed to build your computer, someone has to put together the components and someone has to make the software you use. Along that path, I’m fairly certain that there are some people who do their job simply because they get paid to do so, not because it’s their desire.

Bees collect nectar, because otherwise the colony wouldn’t have any food and all of them would die. Beavers build dams as a kind of terraforming, creating more suitable habitats for themselves.

Sustainability seems to the trend of the developed world. If we work at this, then the habit improves for all of us.

@Morio: I disagree here. I believe there is a wide variety of people all with different interests. It’s hard for someone with one particular interest to understand why someone else is interested in something vastly different. You assume that there are no people out there who would enjoy the act of mining, but I believe there are those who enjoy such things.

You might think that people only mow lawns because they get paid, who out there would do such work purely out of enjoyment you ask? A good friend of mine absolutely loves every aspect of landscaping, he even has a John Deer tractor tattooed on his leg.

There are a great many people in this world who really enjoy getting their hands dirty, at the same time there are those who scoff at the idea of soiling their delicate extremities and there is a place in this world for all of these people.

I do not believe bees collect nectar because the colony would otherwise die out, bees do not have the brain capacity to understand this fact, they do not know that the colony would die out without their efforts. I believe the same of the beaver, if the beavers build dams to make their environment more livable why don’t squirrels and tigers do the same? Birds and beavers build nests and it helps them to survive, but frogs and wolves don’t, why? They’re all so very different, they all live and work in different ways and they all have an integral place in this ecosystem.

Take a salt water fish tank for example. A friend of mine has a large salt water fish tank with a couple of different salt water creatures living in it. It’s pretty neat, but taking care of a salt water fish tank is a lot of work. He has all sorts of gadgets, chemicals and doodads to help him maintain a livable environment for his little creatures.

In nature, in the real salt water fish tank, we don’t need to add chemicals or use a variety of gadgets to maintain a livable environment, nature has provided all the necessary equipment for this. Whales, amoeba, plankton, corral, and all sorts of living filtration ‘devices.’

P.S. People, for whatever reason, like to narrow their idea of acceptable behavior to only that which is familiar to themselves, but in reality things need to be different. If there were a person out there who collected excerement they’d be mocked, probably even run out of their neighborhood by their peers, but the dung beetle performs an extremely useful and necessary task.

The universe around us is rife with variation and extreme differences, the ecosystem thrives on very different creatures living and working in very different ways and the ecosystem works perfectly. People tend to mock those who stray from the norm, people mock variation, often times they try to forcibly prevent or conceal it, people try to enforce conformity. Where the ecosystem has worked in perfection for billions of years human society has crumbled to pieces numerous times.

P.P.S. The bee does not know that if it did not collect nectar the colony would die out, lo and behold it is not necessary for the bee to know this. Just because we do not understand why someone is the way that they are or why they do the things that they do does not mean there’s something wrong with them, it is not necessary for us to know why one particular person is different from ourselves, but it is necessary that they are different, it is necessary that the bee gets to be the bee and it is necessary that the dung beetle gets to be the dung beetle and it is necessary that the whale gets to be the whale. Regardless of whether or not our puny little brains understand why.

Don’t you think you are contradicting yourself there a bit? I’m sure some people like serving fast food as well.

I’m sure that there are people who like mining and a lot of people who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. I also know that there are plenty of people who do not do their jobs simply because they desire it, but rather because they get paid to do it. So is it impossible that on the path from gathering raw materials, refining them into a computer and creating software for that computer there are a few people who are just there to do their jobs simply because they get paid?

All people have desires, but many are willing to put those aside for money.

As we don’t know how animals (or even other people) think, we can only guess why they do what they do. I believe that animals are directed mainly by instinct, genetically encoded behavior that has developed over the course of millions of years. They behave the way they do because they do not know of anything else. I would not necessary call that desire, at least not the same kind of desire that humans feel.

But as I said this is just speculation

P.P.P.S It goes deeper of course. You see the bees have a greater purpose of which they are completely unaware. Bees do not understand that their hive would die out should they cease to collect nectar, but even greater is that bees do not understand that should they cease to collect nectar the survival of the entire ecosystem and every animal on earth would be put in grave danger. Bees have absolutely no idea that this greater purpose exists and even though they know nothing of it they still fulfill this purpose as if they knew what they were doing.

Couldn’t it be that the same is true for us? Couldn’t it be true that each and every one of us has an integral purpose of which we are all completely unaware and even though we know not what that purpose is or that it even exists we still fulfill that purpose.

@Morio: The problem here is that we are only funding that which we understand and not that which we do not understand. The monetary system is based off of supply and demand, really it’s the demand side we do not understand. You see, bees do not understand that the ecosystem needs their work. So to is it with people, there is work that goes undone because it is not understood why it is needed.

Should someone desire to do something that benefits the ecosystem, but is not in human demand they will not get paid even though their work is essential. It is only that people do not understand or know why their work is essential, so we assume they do not contribute and therefore refuse to contribute back to them. In fact they are contributing and it is only that we do not understand why or how.

If someone wants to work for some extra cash that’s their call, but they shouldn’t look at some poor penniless person and tell them they’re a drain on society when they very clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. Like the bee that poor soul has a purpose and a reason for being and it is only that we lack the capacity to understand what that purpose is. There’s no reason to deny someone because it is believed they do not contribute when, in fact, they do contribute every bit as much as anyone else, we just don’t know what it is that they contribute or how that contribution benefits us.

P.S. Simply existing has an effect. A person could be in a coma on a desserted desert island somewhere and still have an effect on the evironment. They convert oxygen to carbon dioxide, which is necessary for the survival of plant life. Say thier comatose body aides in the survival of just one plant, that one plant turns into two plants and over the course of a thousand years those two plants turn into a million plants providing food, shelter and oxygen for billions of other organisms all providing various different things that aide various different species, not the least of which being mankind.

So don’t tell me there are those that don’t deserve the fruits of our labor when I know damn well they deserve it all.

One person provided what was necessary for entire new generations of plants, bees, wasps, ants, yeast, plankton, seaweed, whales, and even people. This one person provided all of this and never knew it, not only that no one ever knew it.

If a tree falls and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Yes it does, a sound that, in due time, reverberates througout the entire universe.

This is very true, but if you have a completely new idea it is your responsibility to make people understand why it is important. Of course there are always skeptics and people who will blatantly ignore all evidence (which sometimes is a good thing, since every now and then people simply lie to get funding).

@Morio: Well obviously if someone has a good idea and they need the help of others than it is unlikely that the idea will be realized unless the inventor reveals it to others, but who really loses out when a good idea goes unexecuted?

…but if no one is around who defines the universe and “a sound that, in due time, reverberates througout the entire universe”, what is left then? like me is always conceptual everything you can put into words is. looking at the contradiction of things you’re doing, you want to do and not want to do, it seems more like there is a absolute necessity for doing or not doing anything. why? by total request i would say. otherwise things people not want to do never would happen. so its likely the same with things people want to do.

The button should be named: “read my mind and implement my vague idea” button ;).
In combination with the “tell me what the application should do” button. It can really replace yourself.

I know such things are under development long before I was at college. And that is quite long ago now :D.

It was called expert system. It tries to collect and manage knowledge of experts and helps to integrate them into your own projects.

Look at software pattern. It is a similar thing. It tells you how to do things to achieve a certain effect. So you do not need to invent it again. Such things do not fit everywhere and have benefits and drawbacks. All these attributes needs to be kept in mind. So you typically do not get “the” solution but a lot of solutions.

The goal of the expert software (and the mentioned above) is to offer fitting solutions helping you to meat your goals. And yes why should it not do the decision without you.

Unfortunately there are many gaps and many solutions to each of them.

Just some thoughts

Check out IBM Watson, I don’t think it will be long, till you can describe what you want to Watson, and he will write it for you…

I thought this was already talked about.

@Jester Elly: As for a tree falling with no one around to hear it, I was taking the old question in a more metaphorical sense. That is to say if a tree falls and no person is around to acknowledge it, does it still have an effect? I believe it does, for one the tree falling effects the surrounding atoms which, in turn, effect their surrounding atoms and so on. Moreover the tree, now lying on the ground, has a different effect on wind, it provides a different living environment for microscopic and macroscopic organisms which, over time, creates an entirely new micro ecosystem that grows and ultimately has an effect on the macro ecosystem which, of course, effects all of us. So even though no one knew the tree fell, the effect that this tree has on the surrounding environment ultimately makes a difference in all of our lives no matter how big or small.

It plays into the Chaos Theory’s Butterfly Effect in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. Others might refer to this as a chain reaction, for instance a proton is a sub-atomic particle so you might think a single proton rather insignificant, but a single proton can give rise to a several thousand megaton atomic blast.

In response to things getting done, as far as what people do and do not want to do, I would say that even though no one in my household particularly enjoys washing dishes the dishes still get washed even though no one is paid for the job. Ultimately that which needs to be done will be done by those that need and/or want it done. That’s really just a law of nature, if you want a tomato then you need to plant a seed, nurture the plant and harvest the fruit.

And back around to the original topic, I wouldn’t be surprised if this DARPA technology goes mainstream someday, but even still I’m sure there will be those that prefer to complete their own programs, myself likely to be one of them. Similar to a car, even though automatic transmissions exist and do a fine job of shifting gears there are many driving enthusiasts who still prefer a manual transmission simply because they want to enjoy the full driving experience.

Also like cars, even though we have expensive manufacturing plants turning out high tech vehicles, custom hand made vehicles are still in high demand and there are those artists who take great care to ensure that each and every bolt is tightly fit and polished because it’s what they love doing. Those cars are often far more expensive partly because there is a smaller supply, but also because the cars themselves are of much greater quality.

The Ford SVT Mustang Cobra, for instance, unlike other Mustangs the Cobra’s engine is hand made and even signed by the engineers that built it. This serves to ensure that each engine has the highest probability to perform at or above specification. Moreover, to the best of my knowlege, Lamborghini’s are hand made, in fact I believe most of the highest performing vehicles are hand made and also bear a price tag that towers above their machine made counterparts.

So I would say this DARPA technology might hold the capability to automate the programming business in much the same way machines have automated the automotive industry. In other words it would likely only flood the market with bland, run of the mill applications that are more prone to failure, but certainly won’t replace the expert craftsmanship of an application hand made with passion.

P.S. A meteorologist actually made steps towards proving portions of Chaos Theory quite some time ago using climate models, believe it or not. By rounding a few variables in a climate model from six decimal places to three in order to observe the changes. It was believed that such a small change would only effect the climate model’s prediction by a very small amount, but, in fact, the generated predictions were entirely different.

Again, Chaos Theory seeks to describe that tiny, seemingly insignificant changes can, and often do, make very large differences. In that particular experiment it was observed that a change of just one billionth of a unit could change the weather patterns across the entire planet.

Just for shits and kicks here’s another hypothetical example of the Butterfly Effect.

Automotive robots often need to be very precise, so let’s say one automotive robot suffered a very slight leak in its lubrication distribution system resulting and a bolt being inserted one millimeter off center, causing it to be inserted at an ever so slight angle.

This vehicle was eventually purchased and while under stress this bolt eventually failed. Over time this failure lead to one after another failures ultimately leading to the failure of one break caliper when under stress. This failure lead to the untimely death of the vehicle’s driver who, had he otherwise survived, would have made ground breaking discoveries in the field of quantum physics that would have lead to quantum computing and even teleportation.

This single millimeter set back the advancement of the human race by roughly one thousand years, which, of course, is exponential.

In fact, many historians believe that the burning of Egypt’s Great Library by Rome may have set back the human race’s technological advancement by as much as a thousand years! I’m sure the war seemed quite necessary to Rome at the time, but they really screwed everyone no? Hell, had it not been for Rome’s insatiable lust for plunder we might just be communicating using gravitational waves traveling lightyears between people living in different solar systems.

P.S. Of course in that hypothetical scenario you can’t really say that a single millimeter made all the difference because something caused that robots lubrication system to fail, and something caused that and something caused that and something caused that in a sequence of events leading all the way back to the Big Bang which, of course, something caused.

…and who is determining “effect” if no one is around? maybe it’s almost like in the zen - riddle “…can you take a grain of sand out of the universe”? if you say this is or this is not its already you determining whatever. and maybe you and me are determined by universe or existence or whatever you claim it is. if there is no you or me who could consider effects of the tree falling and throw up a nice concept how this effects universe and atoms, winds, microscopic, macroscopic etc.? As you see, like in chaos theory you’ll never know whats coming next and all knowledge, concept and prediction is limited. isn’t it nice that recognizing all this limitations is the ultimate and evident pointing to the limitlessnes of whatever it comes from and the nature of universe is? maybe its alike buddha said, all the struggle of people is just effect from painful illusion of separation.

Agreed, as long there is a total request for that, by existence itself or someone who likes or needs it, there will be people writing code by themselves and people who are not. no change at all with or without “Magic Button”.