Preventing the Collapse of Civilization / Jonathan Blow [video]

(Different YouTube URL as it's a different delivery of the same talk.)

Frankly I think this is rooted in a sense of nostalgia rather than practical concern. It's clear me blow enjoys being close to the metal. He wants to be a true hacker who can drill down to each and gate.

But the reality of systems is that they grow more complicated. There is a popular TED talk that claims there is no one on earth who understands how a computer mouse is manufactured. There are just too many steps and specialities (mineral identification, mining, material science, manufacturing, ergonomics, etc).

Anyone who has ever re-made a piece of software knows this trap.

Software starts -> features get added -> it's too complicated, we don't understand it anymore -> throw it away and start over.

It almost never ends up any better. It's a trap as you quickly realise why it was so complicated.

I'm kind of glad that we don't do things like trying to replicate the glory of the pyramids if it's true that they required masses upon masses of slave labor to build them. Similarly for the aqueducts (I don't know if slave labor was used to build them, and a Wikipedia search didn't yield anything useful).