Forever Live in the Programming

Traditionally people have sought immortality through offspring, great works of art, or written words.

Over the weekend I remarked to a buddy that a piece of code I wrote is now in so many business intelligence systems (copied from my company RevSystems) that I am immortal. I believe my quote was:

“I will die in the body but forever live in the programming.” - Matt McDonagh

Code is a new medium for achieving immortality.

The programs we write, the systems we build, can continue to function and influence the world long after we're gone.

That’s the power of digital. Now contrast that with the physical, you can create a dizzyingly beautiful sculpture from the finest marble only to see that same artwork decay to dust in just a few centuries.

While code can certainly outlast its creator… "forever" is a long time. Programming languages evolve, systems become obsolete, and data degrades. So, while the quote above is powerful, the reality is more nuanced.

But I am 100% okay with my code rhyming instead of repeating.

I love seeing OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini LLM output code I wrote originally, knowing full well that developers are going using those snippets of Python and TypeScript to build useful (hopefully, even beautiful) things.

The open-source movement exemplifies this idea of code as a collaborative and evolving entity. By sharing our code freely, we allow others to build upon our work, to adapt it to new contexts, and to extend its reach far beyond what we could have imagined.

Open-source projects like Linux, Python, and TensorFlow have become the foundation of countless applications and systems, their impact far exceeding the intentions of their original creators. This is the true power of code: its ability to transcend individual ownership and become a shared resource, a collective inheritance that benefits all of humanity.

The Joy of Creation

Ultimately, the pursuit of immortality through code is not about achieving eternal fame or recognition. It is about the joy of creation, the satisfaction of building something that can make a difference in the world, however fleeting its existence may be.

Code may not be the key to immortality in the literal sense, but it offers us a unique opportunity to leave our mark on the world. Our creations may not last forever, but their impact can ripple through time, inspiring future generations and shaping the course of technological progress.

If anything we should embrace the ephemeral nature of code, not as a limitation but as an invitation to create, to innovate, and to contribute to the ongoing evolution of technology. Let us write code that rhymes with the past, resonates with the present, and inspires the future.

In the words of the poet and Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore, "Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

Our digital creations may eventually fade away, but their essence, their spirit of innovation and creativity, will live on in the countless creations that follow.

Keep creating and shining, friends.

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I started this letter in May 2023 to track all the accelerating changes in AI/ML, robotics, quantum computing and the rest of the technologies accelerating humanity forward into the future.

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