Summary
Highlights
An explanation of cognitive reflection in the human brain compared to how computers process information, introducing the concept of programs acting upon themselves.
A deep dive into Symbolics, the first company to register a .com domain, and their Genera operating system, which allowed for live inspection and modification of code without a distinction between user and kernel space.
Discussing why Genera's total openness made it essentially non-private and how it was a product of its time before widespread malware and internet security concerns.
A subjective ranking of programming languages (C, Java, Common Lisp, C++, Python, Rust, Go, and 3-Lisp) based on their introspection and runtime modification capabilities.
The presenter demonstrates a custom library built on C++ 26 that bridges static compile-time reflection into runtime reflection, showcasing how to overcome language limitations.