[Infowarrior] - Felten: Why Understanding Programs is Hard

[Richard Forno]

Why Understanding Programs is Hard
Wednesday February 21, 2007 by Ed Felten

Senator Sam Brownback has reportedly introduced a bill that would require
the people rating videogames to play the games in their entirety before
giving a rating. This reflects a misconception common among policymakers:
that it¹s possible to inspect a program and figure out what it¹s going to
do.

It¹s true that some programs can be completely characterized by inspection,
but this is untrue for many programs, including some of the most interesting
and useful ones. Even very simple programs can be hard to understand.

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