Input/Output & The Black Box of Modularity

The Dichotomy of open-source code.

When a dev wants to create something new and interesting, the best code for the job already exists inside of a black box. Black Boxes are magic like that. We put raw data into it and it shoots out the answer without us ever having to look inside the box to see how it works. This is the entire point of black box architecture: we shouldn't have to know every intimate detail of every piece of code in order to build something with utility.

This concept extends into programming languages as well.

Scripting languages like Python are quite slow and clunky on the backend, but sleek and easy to use on the frontend. This is all by design. Python is written in C. C is written in assembler. Assembler is written in machine code. Machine code is basically just ones and zeros (true/false). Oh think of the fun we'll have when AI that can read machine code help us reverse engineer executable files, but that's a topic for another post.

The point being that on a certain level ignorance and modularity are tied together and are actually the ideal state of the development process. If we had to reinvent the wheel every time we built something with wheels: nothing would ever get done. Humanity's entire premise for progress is standing on the shoulders of our ancestors; learning from their mistakes and building on top of what's already been accomplished.

Unfortunately this modus operandi has brought us to where we are now: which is a centralized landscape of consolidated power ripe with corruption. The legacy economy is slowly imploding from its own inability to scale up any further. Crypto, and more importantly open source solutions, are the answer to this problem. All in good time.

Until such times the system we now enforces everything with penalties ranging from fines, imprisonment, and death. This is what has created all the centralization in the first place: intellectual property laws and patents.

Many like to espouse the idea that without IP laws no innovation would happen because there would be no incentive to invent if someone is simply allowed to steal your idea. Not only was this wrong decades ago when the idea was much more relevant, but now that we have crypto it's been proven wrong in the field. We now have the technology to monetize information without pointing a gun in someone's face, and that's a huge gain, as crazy as this all sounds when said out loud.

Black-Box testing

Ironically black-box testing is quite akin to white-hat hacking. I worked for Sony Online Entertainment for a brief period of time testing some random pirate MMO that nobody ever played. That was actually a pretty fun job because I just played the game and was bug-hunting all day. This is what most people think game-testing is like, but most game testing is white-box... or as I like to call it: checklist-testing.

Checklist-testing is the most boring job in the world because you just get a mile-long checklist of all the things you're supposed to test in an organized fashion. Super boring, albeit effective for making sure that every single known detail in the game is working properly.

Modularity

Again, there's no point in reinventing the wheel. The best code is plug & play and can be used over and over again in a wide range of applications. Of course creating well documented modular code is no easy task, and there will always be connecting pieces that need to be built from scratch. Then again maybe all of this becomes much easier with advancements in AI. Funny how all these coders are looking at AI like "you took my job". Did you really want to be a code monkey forever?

Technology creates abundance, and we shouldn't be complaining when AI starts doing all the menial chores for us. The only reason to complain in that scenario is if society is broken and all the abundance created is tricking up to the top of the pyramid. That is the only problem in this modern age; a problem in which all other problems in society are derived. Decentralization is more important now that it ever has been, and this will continue to be true until the worlds biggest institutions start to crumble. The tipping point is neigh.

But what about security?

That's the thing about black-boxes, huh? When I bought my COBO airgapped hardware wallet I was very excited to use it... until I realized that it was broadcasting encrypted information that I couldn't read. I had no idea what they were broadcasting to their own servers... so now it just sits in a drawer.

This is why open-source tech is so important.

When everything is transparent we can more often than not trust that enough people have looked at the code and understand it that there are no blatant threat vectors or vulnerabilities. Of course if the code is new (COUGH defi COUGH) then not enough time has passed to vet the code. This is why EVM hacks are a daily occurrence during any given bull cycle narrative.

Conclusion

Open source tech is the best tech. It scales better. The code is unassailable compared to the garbage that some random company produces and then hides behind a firewall while hoping for the best. The only problem with open source code is that we had no way to monetize it so that devs could actually earn a living to help build it out.

We still have a lot of infrastructure to build in this regard (some kind of NFT bounty system) but that's the thing about technology: once it get's built and unleashed upon the world, anything with value has permanent staying power. Until then we play the waiting game and continue to grind out our own value anyway we can.

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