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Which programming language is the best?
In this fascinating study, the authors analyzed commits on github to see what effect the programming languages have on the number of bugs.
Surprisingly, it does not seem to matter which programming language you choose – you will have the same number of bugs in your code.
The main difference between programming languages is what types of bugs programs written in these languages have. That’s no surprise though, for example while you can leak memory in C++, it’s quite hard to leak in Python.
I suppose what matters is who writes the code, not how? This would explain why it is so hard to find bugs in prof. Donald E. Knuth’s code.
Programming languages are for humans, they are essentially a human interface for compilers. In the future, when programmers are replaced by AI, programming languages will disappear as AI will produce optimal machine byte code and all software will be bug-free.
Women best candidates for Mars
This is a great piece: Women are cheaper to send to Mars than men.
If you think of it, it makes sense. Life support is one of the most expensive elements of any manned space mission. Every kilogram sent to orbit and then away matters. Among things which contribute to the total mass of any space vehicle are not only humans themselves, but also their food and all the equipment necessary to keep them healthy and happy.
Statistically, women are smaller (weigh less) than men and need less food. Given that men and women are equally smart, women seem to be better candidates for deep space missions.
So what next?
The mission to Mars may be the last mission where humans will break the frontiers of space exploration. Given the current rate of AI evolution, I won’t be surprised if sentient machines will be the ones going beyond Mars.
Chris Dragan's Corner 