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Holy shit.
Just wow, wow, holy shit:
Completely rewriting a multi-million line COBOL codebase that has life-or-death consequences for real people in the space of a few months, using gen AI?
I’ve been writing software for 40-some years, and I have to say: this may be, without exaggeration, the stupidest software-related idea I’ve ever heard from leadership.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
I urge you to listen to the riveting and wonderful radio feature about what happens when you try to build a make-or-break project on a ridiculously tight timeline:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-worst-video-game-ever/
The page has summary text, but listen if you can. I’ve heard very few instances of a developer speaking so candidly and with such self-awareness about what it feels like to be part of a failing software project.
Listen. Then imagine that instead of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, it’s social security for the entire USA.
I always give that story as an assignment to my Software Design and Development students. One of the things we talk about is that if the developer •hadn’t• managed to build the game, if the project had collapsed at any point before release, it probably would have saved the company.
The worst possible outcome here is that these DOGEbags manage to build •something• and actually think it works.
Two things that are not mutually exclusive:
- These people don’t care who they hurt, and would view creating chaos and destroying Social Security as a success.
- These people are so reckless, arrogant, and stupid that they actually think they can do this.
@inthehands that would be not just disastrous for social security itself but for the entire software industry. The damage could happen even if they fail to actually replace anything but simply say they did it. A bunch of managers and investors are suddenly going to have absolutely absurd beliefs about what's possible in development. So many people are so credulous towards Musk because they want to believe him.
@thomasjwebb @inthehands wouldn't the absolute failure of such a high profile project expose the absurdity of the current AI hype ? Burst that damn bubble ?
(I certainly hope that this bubble will burst, sooner rather than later actually, but not at such a cost.)
@TofuTheSquirrel @inthehands I've witnessed a lot of choose-your-own-reality narratives around Twitter after Musk's takeover so I wouldn't underestimate their ability to pretend away inconvenient facts when problems happen. It does seem though that the bubble's in the process of bursting, but not everyone's going to get the memo at once.
@thomasjwebb @TofuTheSquirrel @inthehands And the project that bursts the bubble shouldn't be one that will have people starving to death or kicked out of their homes.
@TofuTheSquirrel @thomasjwebb @inthehands
I'm patiently waiting for Americans to wake up and throw these mad men in prison or smthg so maybe that massive fk up will be the spark they need?
It sucks for anyone involved ofc but I feel the sooner they rip off the bandage, the better :S
@Beldarak It's only Trump supporters who cannot see these problems you describe.
Sadly, many of them are totally ignorant about politics (knowing far less about it than many non-Americans) and would have to be personally affected by Musk or Trump in order to know about it.
What I meant is people not in his camp should do something (and at this point I'm not excluding violence, sadly).
I know it's easier said than done of course, and maybe it's just a lack of covering from press in my country, but I'm surprised I don't hear about factories on strike or tons of people in the streets.
Ofc it's hard to say what I'd do in the same situation but I like to think I would act against litteral nazis :S
To put things in context, I live in Belgium. I've been conditioned (pasively, just by our history) all my life to absolutely loathe nazis.
Every time someone brings a "what would you do with a time machine?" question most people here will eventually say "kill Hitler" in their propositions.
I'm a pacifist, anti-war, I used violence maybe once in my life (to get out of a situation). But nazis? That's where people draw the line here and agree: beat the shit out of them.
I visited the Dachau concentration camp when I was a teen, fuck this shit, don't let that happen in your country.
@Beldarak Unfortunately, television and social media are so entertaining for most Americans that they have no idea that they could have something better, and that they deserve it.
I am working with some people to change that though, but we need financial support. It's tough having to cold-start democracy in a country where it's been neglected.
i don't GAF about the software industry, if they failed to actually replace anything but just said they did, that would be fine, Social Security as is works very well
the problem is they're going to break what's working & leave those of us who have worked since age 16 and not yet even reached the full retirement age of 67 with NOTHING to live on when we can't work after we made 50 years of contributions
everything else is a distraction
@peachfront @inthehands I don't think the magical thinking I'm referring to will be confined to the software industry, and that will have real consequences to workers more generally.
it may but they'll get over it (my husband is a programmer, it was ever thus that managers had unrealistic expectations)
thus my greater concern for people who can't work> you can't long survive being denied access to money for food & meds
+ even if we assume Elon is a fool, the actual programmers know generally how long stuff takes to do>these tech bros appear to be INTENTIONALLY working to deniably genocide old people for their personal profit
so that's my focus
@peachfront @inthehands oh yeah I don't like when people overfocus on what affects middle class people who can fend for themselves (and yeah people who can't work are more vulnerable to people who are, which is often a blind spot for people).
@peachfront @thomasjwebb @inthehands well as one of those old people it’s curiously weird feeling to read this and know for sure that these people have no concern at all about potentially millions of people dying after not getting their benefits while they fuck around with computer software. Really, nothing to see here just old people scrounging through dumpsters for food like the good old days.
@peachfront @thomasjwebb @inthehands
I firmly believe one of the main goals of the musk/trump admin is to steal as much money as they can from the govt/taxpayers.
Not content with not paying taxes themselves to begin with, they're going to fleece us all.
@504DR @thomasjwebb @inthehands
i think so too
@peachfront @thomasjwebb @inthehands
What they can't steal, they'll grift.
$75,000 to $200,000 corp sponsorships for the annual WH Easter Egg Hunt.
@peachfront @thomasjwebb @inthehands I believe the word you’re looking for is THEFT.
Not only of the $$ you had to set aside from your paycheck every pay period, but your employer(s) had to as well.
As dumpy would say, “theft like you’ve never seen before. The biggest theft. Like you can’t imagine”
But…we can imagine, because it’s very personal to each of us.
Matthias Wiesmann @inthehands I learnt this at work as the “no heroes” principle.
And these days, if there is a hero, he or she will be a Schindler, will look like an arsehole and act secretly.
I would caution against calling it the stupidest thing ever. They might take that as a challenge 
It took fifteen years to destroy the Sui Dynasty by this method. We may be witnessing a new world record! Neo-Assyrians did it in 8; they built Babylon on the ruins.
@teledyn @inthehands It'll be fine if they just put a blockchain on it! /s
I've said it before, they'll "invest" the ss funds into some national crypto fort blox...and nature will take it's course.
@felichsdakatze @teledyn @inthehands Place your bets which 'APT' gets there first
@teledyn @inthehands I'm pretty sure climate change did not get the memo it does not exist and neither the Sui Dynasty nor the Neo-Assyrians were actively trying to ignore a structural threat, did they?
Seems to me it might. Climate was certainly a factor bringing down the Minoans and just about everyone else c.1170 bce, but that took decades to accomplish, although the whole terrorism thing and immigration would be common talk back then.
I think some archaeological research is beginning to unveil just how much agriculture of humans has led to climate change in the past.
Dr Millan Millan’s most notable work was the task he was given by European governments to understand why the summer rains failed in the Mediterranean in the 1990s.
Principally the marshes that had been paved over for oil refineries in the 80s had destruct the region’s hydrological cycle.
Kill the land, kill the climate.
@teledyn @inthehands Republicans have been hacking away at the foundations of our country for 40 years.
Additionally, if this unworkable project, which will never work, turns out in keeping with all rational expectation not to work...
It will be somebody else's fault.
@theogrin
Yup, •and• it will be deemed a complete success. Both at once, probably.
They will blame it on Hunter Biden's laptop. It's worked before so I could see them trying it .
What we're experiencing is the natural implosion of an unsustainable system, and I don't mean Social Security, I mean the US government under neoliberal and corporate rule.
Social Security and Medicare have been untouchable because the political class knew that it impacted too many white middle class people.
But Trump et al. are ideologues who don't understand that consequences can exist *even for them*. So they're fucking around with the bull.
you’d need Big Balls to try!
@inthehands now the question for each of us - upon learning this, what will you do about it? 
@inthehands Move fast and break (other people’s) things.
They have every intention of doing so. They are intent on obliterating the United States and that means obliterating everything the US public has built for their own well-being.
Just as with everything else about billionaires, they are masters of having a stake in something and taking it all for themselves.
@inthehands They found their wedge to destroy Social Security. They will indeed let it simply collapse under mismanagement. Millions of Americans died from covid mismanagement and no one in their circles cared. Why should demolishing social security be any different?
@inthehands just when I think I can’t have a lower opinion of Elon Musk he does something like this.
@Okanogen
Pronounced “doozh-bags”
@inthehands@hachyderm.io The "and break things" is in big, bold, blinking italics.
@inthehands@hachyderm.io
But seriously: these asshats need to keep their religion away from critical systems.
@inthehands oooh, this sounds interesting even without the added tension of a critical agency collapse
Everything.
Absolutely everything could go wrong.
haxadecimal @teajaygrey @inthehands
Even the things which CANNOT POSSIBLY go wrong, can go wrong. And probably will.
@inthehands The recording is 26 minutes long. Is it hard to summarize?