Paul GrahamVerified account

Software is as close as we can come, in a non-magical world, to magic.

It's too soon to fully understand the revolution software will have on human history. It likely rivals the Cambrian Explosion.

Brain recursion

The resulting flexibility is great, but maybe has downsides. Constraints inspire creativity. Physical machines' constraints make for ingenious new designs. The inspiring fluidity of software design makes us *think* we're being creative when too often we stick to the beaten path.

It’s DNA

With teenage brains and economic pheromones we manage to enact changes we can hardly conceive even after they've happened. (Civilization doing things the individuals don't understand is what economics is about.)

BUT, with scientific notation and squinting you can draw the exact parallels to how we did things before. I.e. we push electrons and photons around instead of protons. We manufacture by copying, ship by fiber optic, rent our factories by the second. Build them by photography.