Software Is Cheating the World
Software is eating the world. Yep! And at the same time, software is cheating the world.
The recent case of Volkswagen’s cheating on emissions tests highlights how much the involvement of software in one of the greatest scandals. In fact, this is probably not going to be the first or last of similar cases. Smartphone makers had been doing that. And way back in the beginning of this millennia, Intel the largest CPU maker in the world, had been doing exactly the same dirty trick with its Pentium 4 score benchmark.
With the latest string of similar murky cases, the public opinion towards software had shifted to its ugly side. Software becomes a beast that requires taming. It’s a carrier that brings unfair advantage to the folks behind it. It’s unfathomable force of power not many ones seen, spoken or able to recall yet lived in fear of it. Software is cheating the world. Help!
The Law of Constraints
To understand software is to understand how software was crafted by software developers. The nature of work done by most software developers is simply an act to circumvent the limitation imposed by the world’s constraints. Endless workarounds has been created to get around a specific set of constraints. Everything from the low level optimization on compilers’ bitcode — yes it sounds more atomic than bytecode, whatever — to the high level API, system integration and administrations. Despite being constantly bounded by all the constraints the world has, it chose to ignore those. Software is born out of necessity to circumvent the constraints. Meanwhile software’s replicability, availability and limitless possibilities are its unique characteristics that propelled software into today’s powerhouse.
Software is a beast of its own, nothing behaves this way before. No physicist working on next nuclear fusion set his/her mind to drop unthinkable destruction to humanity with what a nuclear power can bring. While today software engineers around the world are clocking hard at work to fulfill this prophecy of software is eating the world.
With the Great Power Comes the Great Responsibility
Alright, well that’s lame. But law makers, regulators, investigators and policy enforcers around the world are keeping a close eye on all potentially unfair and unlawful cases involving software. Let’s take a page from sharing economy, a glimpse into economy empowered by software to circumvent the constraint imposed by a certain group of people with their own interests, well yeah the haves vs have nots twist. It’s probably going to be more stringent for those involved. It’s going to get harder and harder. More regulations, more bans, and more arrested. Airbnb and Uber are possibly among the companies being most frequently aimed for possibly illegal trade involving an unfair advantage created by software. Yes, another signature of software. It’s unfair towards those who doesn’t get to hold into the benefit of software than who does. Well, it’s true. Good luck competing with High Frequency traders employing millions of software brains behind the scene.
Now, between the eating and the cheating, nobody likes to get chewed alive. Yep! Whatever that means.
