Interview with Jaron Lanier on "Phenotropic" Development

Sky Lemon writes "An interview with Jaron Lanier on Sun's Java site discusses 'phenotropic' development versus our existing set of software paradigms. According to Jaron, the 'real difference between the current idea of software, which is protocol adherence, and the idea [he is] discussing, pattern recognition, has to do with the kinds of errors we're creating' and if 'we don't find a different way of thinking about and creating software, we will not be writing programs bigger than about 10 million lines of code no matter how fast our processors become.'"

Comments

No, YOU'RE full of it

[Pentagram]

Who modded this up? A single base change in DNA is almost never fatal. For a start, considerably more than 90% of the human genome is junk that has no expressive effect anyway (according to some theories it helps protect the rest of the genome.) Even point mutations in coding sections of the DNA often do not significantly alter the shape of the protein it codes for, and many proteins are coded for in several locations in the genome.

True, single base changes can have dramatic effects, but this is rare. As an example, the human genetic equipment is so fault-tolerant that humans can be even born with 3 copies of a chromosome and still survive (Down's Syndrome).