[eu-gene] Generative or not? cubo23

[Jim Andrews]

> > there is nothing theoretical that prevents machines from programming
> > themselves.
>
> True, we haven't yet found a reason why computers can't think or
> program themselves.  But I think the bigger problem is that there's
> also nothing theoretical that allows machines to program themselves
> either.

Your second sentence is false.

Antoinne gave an example of a programming language that supports
self-modifying code. That is explicit support. But such explicit support is
not required, ie, if you know how to program in a language, you can figure
out how to write code that writes code (in that language or other
languages), how to save that as a source file, how to copy source files into
a project that can be compiled, say, how to run the compiler automatically
and feed it the appropriate parameters, how to wait until it's compiled, how
to start up the resulting program, etc etc.

ja