this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Even if it's just an archived version, someone somewhere will find utility in IT or coding advice posted over a century ago.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Doubt it. The way Web companies work, they eventually enter an entshitification phase and then die out. Zero chance stackoverflow last until the end of the century.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

I used to work for a very old company that still has digitized copies of many, if not most, of its oldest records available for reference. It was surreal looking at internal technical documentation for things that stopped existing 50 years ago

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

OP said "even if it's an archived version." But sure continue to push your emotional state onto an otherwise unrelated conversation

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Who downvoted this? The person you replied to didn't read the post.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago

People are doubtful, but I read a post on Gamefaqs from like, 25 years ago and they went through plenty of enshittification. I look forward to sharing the ancient texts with my great grandkids on how to get the best sword in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Im sure people will still be using Java 8 then, so its fine

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

And every single bank will still use COBOL

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Plus all the questions about java.util.Date will still be relevant in Java version 100.

Hell. They may even undeprecate java.util.Date .

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When you bump a 100 year old thread because the only answer was some guy telling OP to use different software.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Maybe if science extends our lives substantially, the original poster will respond.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The mods will by then be replaced with bots that remove every new question by default because it was probably answered like 65 years ago and if not it's not a good question.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

As long as it posts the original link and never closes the original... I'm okay with that.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Only if people are still around in 100 years.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Probably rare. I guess occasionally people link to old usenet posts...

Somehow, C will still be around.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

More likely that AI will be answering questions drawing on training sets containing forum posts that are over 100 years old.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

The AI: "Question marked as duplicate."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

And The Art of Computer Programming will finally be finished?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As AI keeps progressing, it's more than likely that humans will no longer code anything in the near future.

You'll start a conversation with your AI, describe what you are trying to achieve, and the AI can write and debug code faster and better than you ever could.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You're down voted, but you're right.

Naysayers are looking at AI capabilities today. Not AI capabilities in 10-20 years.

AI accelerates AI development/advancement.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

At some point AI will be able to train itself, improvise, and even experiment with solutions to find the optimal ones. I wonder how long it will take.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I have to wonder the medium we will be using then. Will it be a heads up display in our eyes by then?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Maybe we will just share a hive mind, Borg-style.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Unlikely, even if there isn't an AI-related end of history. How often do you read anything over a hundred years old, outside of English class? Have you ever read a technical document over a hundred years old in your life?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

A lot of people still read the Bible and other religious texts outside of English class.

People still read a lot of classics.

Tons of legal documents, laws that haven't changed, and other bureaucratic documentation is still referenced regularly.

Pretty sure there are architecture plans for things like the Hoover Dam that are still used for making maintenance decisions.

Historians sure look back at old documents, not to mention people who do genealogy and other family history stuff.

While the average person may not actively seek out old text because new content on the internet is the current hotness, there is still a ton of information that people who are working jobs or doing research need that is over a century old and that is the kind of information that is comparable to something like stack overflow. It will more likely be copied and retained through something like archive.org than the original website, but as long as there is a chance that someone might need it or someone has retaining it as a hobby, it will still be around.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Given some software is still dependent on stuff written like 20 years ago, it wouldn't surprise me if even a small part of some future program relies on century old code

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

We (in much of Europe at least) rely on train lines and sewers laid out over 100 years ago and we refer to plans made then, so I think there's a high chance there's software around in 100 years which still works so never gets replaced (or gets upgraded but is the same at the core, I bet windows still has task manager barely modified)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

.... Maps?

Plat maps, land use maps, survey maps....etc can date to the early 1900's and late 1800's. Preserved & converted to digital form for country-side USGIS visualizations and mapping.

Or architectural blueprints, or sewer/water line diagrams/maps. Electrical & communication lines are approaching that age. Transportation infrastructure and diagrams.

We reference documents & technical knowledge that's 30-50 years old, sometimes 70-80 years old right now in our industry. Mathematics knowledge that's well over 100 years old.

There are countless examples of important things that are as old as the industry itself.

It's essentially guaranteed that we will be referencing technical documentation and design and knowledge that is over 100 years old once this industry is old enough.