Robust-first computing: Beyond efficiency

[@gsemman]

Great video. I was in Prof Ackley's programming class back in 2000 when I was a CS undergrad, I enjoyed his lectures a lot. Prof Ackley, do you remember the blocks program homework? We had to move blocks around in a grid until they bumped into something. My friends still tease me to this day how I was banging my head trying to figure out that homework. It's been 13 years now for me as a network driver developer, thanks much to your teaching and much grace.

[@DaveAckley]

gsemman Wow, thanks for checking in! I haven't thought about that program in ages. Good to hear things are working out.

[@PunmasterSTP]

Hey I just came across your comment and was intrigued. What is this blocks program homework you speak of? 😃

[@DaveAckley]

This is a fifteen minute overview of the essay "Beyond Efficiency", which is appearing in the October issue of Communications of the ACM. It's a little emphatic! What do you think?

[@ChristofTeuscher]

Awesome!

[@DaveAckley]

Hey Christof Teuscher! Portland State University was one of the first places I talked about this stuff, and you guys were great!

[@kotobotov]

Dave Ackley pretty impressive, I'll try to use Akka to implement this approach

[@edk7825]

@Dave Ackley whats your thought on designing new hardware that holds RFC as its fundamental basis? what i mean by hardware is the cirquit on the silicone chip.

[@PunmasterSTP]

Beyond efficiency? More like "Beautiful explanations that are free!" Thank you so much for sharing all of your ideas.

[@andypetsch]

Thanks for this video. I love to hear and think about new ideas especially if they break up this way of thinking which takes everything for granted and question the way things work right now. You're a really pleasant speaker. Please keep doing those videos.

[@cyroxis]

Great food for thought. I took a couple of your classes back in 2006 and they were very foundational for both my studies and my career in software. Thank you for educating me both then and now.

[@PunmasterSTP]

That's awesome! By the way, how is software development going these days?

[@chudchadanstud]

This is a magical channel.

[@StephenPaulKing]

Swaps reduce spatial position error... Interesting! This reminds me of an computational analogue of Erik Verlinde's theory of gravity.

[@Neptutron]

This is pretty cool! I'm wondering how I found it though lol there's hardly any views on this video since 2013 and yet somehow KZbin recommended this to me...no regrets :)

[@PunmasterSTP]

It's October 2022 and it still only has around 7k views. I'm glad this channel got recommended to me, though it was by a person and not The Algorithm!

[@fixfaxerify]

I think you should always be efficient, not regrettably, whether you're aiming for correctness or robustness it seems obvious you should not use resources beyond what is necessary. I get that efficiency is not the main goal, but it still has value. Resources always come at some cost, even though it is lower than it used to be in the past.

[@manueld4379]

I love watching your videos, you're really smart. By the way I'd like to know if you have a case to share where Quicksort or Mergesort would fails.

[@DaveAckley]

Thanks for the comments! Example at plus.google.com/118368015187130725325/posts/NhhA3pAUMv9

[@stumbling]

Can robust-first computing "future-proof" computer hardware and/or software?

[@DaveAckley]

CowLunch In the long run, that's the hope. Current HW/SW needs a pretty big rethink anyway.

[@stumbling]

Not sure if you're still checking these comments but Spectre has me thinking about "Robust First" again in many ways. I wonder if in the future instead of requiring drivers our hardware will learn by itself how best to operate and communicate with other components, cutting off exploits like Spectre (and potentially unlocking greater operational efficiency) as its modus operandi evolves. I like the idea of tossing my computer a new graphics card and leaving it over night to play around with it, learn how to use it and get the most out of it. Another question is could this be exploited by a clever virus? Could a virus manipulate the feedback the system is getting and trick it into optimizing for undesirable or nefarious purposes against the owner's wishes?

[@PunmasterSTP]

@@stumbling I'm not the professor, but I just came across your comment and wanted to add my two cents. I think there will always be an evolutionary arms race between organisms and the things that try to exploit them, whether that be in the "biological" world or in silico. I'd imagine that when things get advanced enough, we'd see computers and programs with more complete "organ systems", such as an immune system with natural and acquired immunity.

[@benjaminweeg9684]

I think I got it...

[@DaveAckley]

+Benjamin Weeg Yay!

[@shahbazak9451]

man, you scared me!!!! 1:06

[@StephenPaulKing]

Could we think of the Alien Card Comparison Device to a test of the relative entropy of pairs of Alien Cards?

[@trejohnson7677]

🐢& 🐇

[@pickleros]

your ideas are beyond awesome

[@DaveAckley]

Thanks for the comments!

[@dantescanline]

I love your presentations! Your custom interactive demos are awesome!

[@DaveAckley]

+mick maus We need more personal programming in this world.