Eliezer:
“Tim, your page doesn’t say anything about FOR loops or self-optimizing compilers not being able to go a second round, which is the part you got from me and then thought you had invented.”
Well, it certainly does:
“Today, machines already do a lot of programming. They perform refactoring tasks which would once have been delegated to junior programmers. They compile high-level languages into machine code, and generate programs from task specifications. They also also automatically detect programming errors, and automatically test existing programs.”
I guess your claim is only a misunderstaning caused by not understaning CS terminology.
Find a new way how to optimize loops is application of automated refactoring and automated testing and benchmarking.
Eliezer:
“Will, your example, good or bad, is universal over singletons, nonsingletons, any way of doing things anywhere.”
I guess there is significant difference—for singleton, each mistake can be fatal (and not only for it).
I believe that this is the real part I dislike about the idea, except the part where singleton either cannot evolve or cannot stay singleton (because of speed of light vs locality issue).