In the future...

In the future, no one will be using test-driven development. Instead, we will be using proof-driven development. A programmer will create a specification for a program in a language like Gallina and prove its safety and correctness using a proof assistant like Coq. Once done, a compiler will transform the specification and proof into an executable program which is proven to be semantically equivalent to the specification. In addition, the proof will be bundled with the machine code of the program so that a third-party can statically check that the program adheres to its safety policy before running a single line of code, a technique called proof-carrying code.

In the future, machine code will not specify instructions to be executed. Instead, machine code will specify the layout of a circuit, and the computer when executing that program   will "re-wire" itself to match the specification. Data will flow through the constructed circuit as fast as physically possible. And when execution is finished, the circuit will be re-used for another program after another re-wiring. Of course, the computer won't literally move wires around; it will probably be more akin to gates making and breaking connections. How is that different from today's computers that use transistors as gates? These gates won't be clocked. Moreover, these computers won't be limited to running N things in parallel, one for each of N cores. The computers of the future will be more like today's FPGAs in that you will be able to run as many things in parallel as you can fit in your circuit, which could be on the order of thousands or more.

In the future, people will create life in their own image. They will start off with simple robotic toys for entertainment. Then they will begin automating mundane tasks like cleaning and maintenance. Then they will progress to having robots take part in high-risk situations like flying planes, performing surgery, and going to war. But eventually the technology will become so well developed and cheap that creating automata will be as easy as hacking scripts on a home computer. These little things will infiltrate our lives the same way PCs did in the 80s and 90s. And people will accept them. It won't stop there however, because people always want more; it's in our nature. And driven by money, we will create automata (they won't be called "robots", but something more marketable) to satiate our addictions. The female sex slave will come out first, and soon after followed by the male model. But with all these automata running around, people will begin to feel disconnected, and they will want to have someone in the lonely world to listen to them and comfort them. They will again turn to their ever-constant automata for support, as they are the only things that can be consistently controlled. So they will make automata that can please one not only sexually, but emotionally and psychologically. Of course, to do this, they would have to make an automaton that can empathize, an automaton that can understand the feelings that its master feels. And the only way to do this is to create an automaton that can actually feel these things, the same things that its human master feels, and be capable of going through the same experiences. But once this great feat is accomplished, people will then begin to realize that what they've created — with all their own feelings, desires, and experiences — won't want to serve anyone but themselves. Humans, in their infinite ignorance, will have created beings not only in their own image, but in their own problematic situation, in an attempt to solve that very problem. And in the end, we won't be any better off except in realizing that there is nothing fundamentally different between a human body and an automaton body.

In the future, every choice we will have made will have become obvious. And in the future, we will still believe that we are in control of the choices we make. In the future we will look back on the past with a nostalgic eye. And in the future, we will still believe that there are better days far ahead. In the future, we will continue to run and run towards comfort and safety. And in the future, we will not find what we are looking for until we give up looking.

In the future, I will see some more patterns. And in the future, I will sit back and do nothing about them. ...Unless of course — something changes.