Today’s software has been criticized for being buggy and insecure, both too expensive and time-consuming to create. As computers become more complex and parallel, today’s development paradigm appears increasingly incapable of matching the pace of accelerating technological change. Stephen Omohundro of Self-Aware Systems describes in his October 24, 2007 Stanford University Computer Systems Colloquium a new approach to “software synthesis,” in which artificially intelligent machines take over many of the tasks of software development. The approach is based on “self-improving systems” which improve themselves by learning from their own operation. These same systems have the potential to develop radically improved hardware based on nanotechnology, leading to profound technological and social consequences.
