my 2025 predictions in computer science

And before you say it’s antiquated, just remember. You’re reading this on: an OS who’s system frameworks are C++ in a browser engine that is likely C++ rendered by a graphics subsystem that is, big surprise, C++. Young people need to know this stuff too.

This is fundamentally the problem with how C++ is currently taught. The best way to “unlearn” a negative C++ bias, especially for students, is to look at how Modern C++ is actually done. Every year, CppCon has a “Back to Basics” Track, which they also upload to youtube. I

Imagine learning the fundamentals of carpentry, but for teaching reasons, an otherwise reputable brand is artificially constrained to hand tools. Of course, the moment a student jumps into the real world, and experiences their first power tool, it will blow their mind!

Admittedly, professors are in a tough spot. To teach the concept, you fundamentally have to constrain the scope of the language. Many schools choose C++ out of practicality. Controversially, I think toy languages that *aren't* industry standards are better suited for this.

Colleges do a terrible job of teaching C++. It’s not “C with Classes”. Injected into curriculums as a demonstration of early CS concepts, it leaves many with a sour taste. Students later immediately fall in love with the first language that *doesn’t* feel that way.

My favorite programming burn is Bjarne Stroustrup was once (supposedly) asked what he thought of Java. He said he doesn’t like to be negative about C++ Applications.

In the modern era we don’t really have a Commodore 64, or even a Motorola 68000 equivalent. You start with absurd amounts of power. Being stuck in class with a crappy calculator is one of the few times a mass of students ever experience a super limited computing device.

People will overlock the CPU 10x for the fun of it. I had the (superior, heh) Casio FX-9860GII. Limited C support, but that thing flew with an OC. It ate through batteries like mad, but that was part of the fun.

Graphing Calculators like the TI-83 receive a lot of hate for perceived obsoleteness. Unironically, it’s one of the few times that younger generations experience a limited computing system. The creativity from boredom, no phone, etc makes for some interesting programming.

full video: https://t.co/kEeI36ucgc

Open Source isn't going to help. There's a way to invisibly compromise all software. A perfect, self-replicating "sin" passed down for generations of compilers. It's not just theoretical, and Ken Thompson showed us how.

average OAI employee: yoo haha install ai tiktok guys look at this silly dance meanwhile google employee: *casually wins Nobel prize*

So what is it good for? Basically, imagine you want a programmatic process, but at a bacterium / molecular level. We can’t get CPUs down there…but you can *sorta* turn your python code into an AC or genetic circuit. Thus, the computation occurs in-cell. It’s an insanely

It get’s even weirder. You can *compile* Artificial Chemistries (ACs) to actual DNA molecules. Thus, the logic of your fake universe can be executed by real chemical systems via strand displacement.

There’s no main() function, loops, if-then statements. You literally dump a soup of artificial molecules into a virtual beaker. Then, they collide according to the rules of your made-up world.

Artificial Chemistries (ACs) are the weirdest kind of “programming” you’ve never heard of. Imagine being a chemist; but in an alternate-reality fanfiction where the elements that make up the world are wildly different. Here’s how you write it.

Mobile Data bandwidth is another rough one. I do think it will +10x, but the spectrum is pretty crowded. When performance is related to a thermodynamic, quantum, or perception limit (displays), tech progress is linear.

It’s easy to predict how tech will change in your lifetime based on which mechanisms are already near theoretical limits. - Battery energy density - Display Resolution - Datacenter Cooling - Drone Endurance - Skyscraper height All very unlikely to 10x.

slapping together the readme after the project is ready to go

how did anyone seriously code in FORTRAN i just got an error for incrementing a variable in a loop??