diff --git a/blog/gears-and-gods-2019-11-14.markdown b/blog/gears-and-gods-2019-11-14.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c60aa73 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/gears-and-gods-2019-11-14.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +--- +title: The Gears and The Gods +date: 2019-11-14 +tags: + - wasm + - philosophy + - gods +--- + +# The Gears and The Gods + +If there are any gods in computing, they are the authors of compilers. The +output of compilers is treated as a Heavenly Decree, sometimes used for many +sprints or even years after the output has been last emitted. + +People trust this output to be Correct. To tell the machine what to do and by +its will it be done. The compiler is itself a factory of servitors, each bound +by the unholy runes inscribed into it in order to make the endless sequence of +lights change colors in the right patterns. + +The output of the work of the Gods is stored for later use when their might is +needed. The work of the Gods however is a very fickle beast. Their words of +power only make the gears turn when they are built with very specific gearing. + +This means that people who rely on these sacred runes have to chain themselves +to gearing patterns. Each year new ways of tricking the gears to run faster are +developed. The ways the gears turn can be learned to be abused however to spill +the secrets other gears are crunching on. These gearing patterns haven’t seen +any real fundamental design changes in decades, because you never know when the +output of the Old Gods is needed. + +This means that the gears themselves are the chains that bind people to the +past. The gears of computation. The gears made of sand we tricked into thinking +with lightning. + +But now the gears show their age. The gearing on the side of the gearing on the +side of the gearing on the side of the gearing shows its ugly head. + +But the Masses never question it. Even though they take hit after hit to +performance of the gears. + +What there needs to be is some kind of Apocalypse, a revealing of the faults in +the gears. Maybe then the Masses will start to question their blind loyalty and +chains binding them to the gears. Maybe they would be able to even try other +gear patterns. + +But this is just fantasy, nobody would WILLINGLY change the gearing patterns. + +Would they? + +But what about the experience they’ve come to expect from their old gears? Where +they could swap out inputs to the gears with ease. Where the Output of the Gods +of old still functions. + +There needs to be a Better Way to switch gearings. But this kind of solution +isn’t conducive to how people use the gears. People use the gears they do +because they don’t care. They just want things to work “like they expect it to” +and ignore things that don’t feed this addiction. + +And THIS is why I’m such a big advocate for WebAssembly on the server. This lets +you take the output of the Gods and store it in a way that it can be +transparently upgraded to new sets of gearing. So that the future and the past +can work in unison instead of being enemies. + +Now, all that's left is to build a bridge. A bridge that will help to unite the +past, the present and the future into a woven masterpiece of collaborative +cocreation. Where the output of the gods is a weaker chain to the gears of old +and can easily be adapted to the gears of new. Even the gears that nobody's even +dreamed of yet.