asciilifeform: imagine if we knew precisely when each man would die. would we give up on the concept of life insurance? or would it turn into a ludicrous farce.
asciilifeform: 'The corpse of a British man who died in Macedonia is being flown to Frankfurt for Ebola testing.' << for testing, small vial of corpse juice ought to suffice, no? what's the purpose of shipping the entire carcass...?
asciilifeform: and that not a single line of code ever written, from babbage to today, can be used as is - or even with mild combing.
asciilifeform: and we sit down for tea, and i tell him we have to use... ternary
asciilifeform: imagine der fuhrer knocks on my door;
asciilifeform: it's not like convincing folks to drink 'cyanide koolaid' - it's like convincing them to drink sulfuric acid. (who? management specifically. of any nation.)
asciilifeform: what i was suggesting is, that it is very difficult (not impossible, but close to it) to get people to shake off design-space constraints when it jumps costs by orders of magnitude.
asciilifeform: just - in well-understood, fungible things.
asciilifeform: plenty of tech investment there, though
asciilifeform: not surprised if nobody agrees - i think i've yet to meet anyone who does (other, than, possibly, chuck moore, and i haven't asked him in person - only read him)
asciilifeform: my argument, for many years, is, roughly 'it has to fit in a head.'
asciilifeform: job of being, e.g., zhukov - doesn't.
asciilifeform: how i know? my estimation, three people who can crap out the answer. one's a schizophrenic, far gone, other's me, who works 3 jobs, and the third is probably too old already.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: they had one. microshit won the contract.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: no need for trillion. 10^7 would suffice - but it'd have to be spent on doubleplusungood crimethinkers, and that's a no-go.
asciilifeform: bounce, mircea_popescu: not a money problem. the 'fix' is not available off the shelf.
asciilifeform: and the harder derps run, the more painful the gravel in the face will be.
asciilifeform: like every disagreement with physical reality, this one will make itself felt
