Okay but why stop there: why not also hand-wave a new operating system and hardware architecture into existence for it to run on while they're at it? I mean it's only 60 million lines of code [1] after all. Should be able to knock that out in a weekend.
I believe the recommendation was to download or print out your existing payments/contributions so you can still get your money after they rm -rf / the whole thing
"Anyone who actually contributed to social security, please report to the 10th floor at 2 pm today. Before doing so, please email a bullet point summary of what your contributions have been in the past ~6 months, along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient pay stub deductions."
Not after a lot longer either; I was present for some attempts at social security and tax system rewrites in my country and they failed (massive write offs that sparked scandals); they are massive, mainframe systems with many decades of changes. I think 'understanding' the current system would be a bit of a problem.
I know that the AI that they're going to try to do this with is going to choke on the COBOL side of things a bit, but I have to wonder, what's the target language?
If they were refactoring /cleaning up the code and porting to a modern platform - then yeah, that would be good for the future. But also a massive effort and well beyond anything that someone can parachute in and complete in weeks or months.
If it's an automated transformation from COBOL to say Java, then why? Any machine translated code is not going to be as clean as the source, which itself is probably not that clean if it is typical public sector code that has been mogrified repeatedly over the years to meet changing legislative needs.
There's no obvious reason why a machine translation to Java should be any more reliable than the original COBOL. The only obvious benefit is opening up to a greater number of coders who could make changes. But at the expense of losing the skills of the existing COBOL maintainers. My guess is it would be a wash.
It's less about COBOL and more about the culture that disallows any changes. Because everything is highly regulated and any change must have extensive testing, it's almost impossible to change anything about the original COBOL. Instead, modern systems like online banking are grafted on top as wrappers. If you think this cruft cannot possibly be more reliable than just rewriting the damn thing - you'd be right. And this is why countries that got computers into banks decades after the US are now running circles around the antedeluvian US systems.
The only way out is through and someone has to rip off all these bandaids. And while one is at is, might as well write this in a language known by more than a dozen overpaid graybeards.
Do you have any evidence to back up your claim that newer banks are running circles around US Banking systems? And what does that have to with Social Security?
Yeah, and you can get the same evidence firsthand. Experiencing a banking app literally anywhere but North America ought to do it.
What does it have to do with Social Security? It's the same kind of culture that worships lack of change over everything else, and as a result it is bloated and slow.
Go listen to the "jackass" twitter spaces recording that took place after Elon took over twitter and announced a rewrite... this is about what I'd expect from him.
Okay but why stop there: why not also hand-wave a new operating system and hardware architecture into existence for it to run on while they're at it? I mean it's only 60 million lines of code [1] after all. Should be able to knock that out in a weekend.
[1] https://oig.ssa.gov/congressional-testimony/2016-07-14-newsr...
UBI could fix it with 1 loc:
If (citizen) send $500
I believe the recommendation was to download or print out your existing payments/contributions so you can still get your money after they rm -rf / the whole thing
"Anyone who actually contributed to social security, please report to the 10th floor at 2 pm today. Before doing so, please email a bullet point summary of what your contributions have been in the past ~6 months, along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient pay stub deductions."
The chainsaw will have the same end result. Can't read shredded drives.
Surprise surprise, now, it is Department of Government Efficiency that is wasting "tax payers' money".
This sounds laughably naive. They won't even understand the existing system by then.
Not after a lot longer either; I was present for some attempts at social security and tax system rewrites in my country and they failed (massive write offs that sparked scandals); they are massive, mainframe systems with many decades of changes. I think 'understanding' the current system would be a bit of a problem.
Dunning-Kruger effect
I know that the AI that they're going to try to do this with is going to choke on the COBOL side of things a bit, but I have to wonder, what's the target language?
I don't get the point.
If they were refactoring /cleaning up the code and porting to a modern platform - then yeah, that would be good for the future. But also a massive effort and well beyond anything that someone can parachute in and complete in weeks or months.
If it's an automated transformation from COBOL to say Java, then why? Any machine translated code is not going to be as clean as the source, which itself is probably not that clean if it is typical public sector code that has been mogrified repeatedly over the years to meet changing legislative needs.
There's no obvious reason why a machine translation to Java should be any more reliable than the original COBOL. The only obvious benefit is opening up to a greater number of coders who could make changes. But at the expense of losing the skills of the existing COBOL maintainers. My guess is it would be a wash.
It's less about COBOL and more about the culture that disallows any changes. Because everything is highly regulated and any change must have extensive testing, it's almost impossible to change anything about the original COBOL. Instead, modern systems like online banking are grafted on top as wrappers. If you think this cruft cannot possibly be more reliable than just rewriting the damn thing - you'd be right. And this is why countries that got computers into banks decades after the US are now running circles around the antedeluvian US systems.
The only way out is through and someone has to rip off all these bandaids. And while one is at is, might as well write this in a language known by more than a dozen overpaid graybeards.
Do you have any evidence to back up your claim that newer banks are running circles around US Banking systems? And what does that have to with Social Security?
Yeah, and you can get the same evidence firsthand. Experiencing a banking app literally anywhere but North America ought to do it.
What does it have to do with Social Security? It's the same kind of culture that worships lack of change over everything else, and as a result it is bloated and slow.
Banks systems are not extensively tested and hold together with glue and tape.
Well, the banks would strongly disagree. Try talking to someone who tried selling tech to a bank.
I'm surprised its not java, from what I understand IBM has a good migration path from COBOL to Java.
Php
I'd say HOON, but that would mean Moldbug is more than just a useful idiot.
Original article, before wrapping by Yahoo: https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/25/04/44649236/fro...
this would be a great thing to have transparency for the project
"we've put in our test comparison code, and it shows 100% mismatch, next we're starting on implementation"
and then later "we're at 10% mismatch, and here's the interesting bugs and issues with social security holding up the next 5%"
Wait? Is there anything actually broken with the existing system? This is such a "junior developer" move I'm amazed it's being entertained seriously.
Go listen to the "jackass" twitter spaces recording that took place after Elon took over twitter and announced a rewrite... this is about what I'd expect from him.
It's a very simple project when the only code living on government servers is going to be a hook like `curl https://tesla.com/bloated-government-contract-number-53 | php`
npm run social-security
Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43594572
You mean (122 points, 8 days ago, 136 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43505659