Code is a liability, not an infinitely reproducible machine that requires no labor inputs to operate. It is a brittle machine that eventually "wears out" and needs a top-to-bottom refactoring to keep being in good working order.

It's code's capabilities that are assets.

«"Writing code" is about making code that runs well. "Software engineering" is about making code that fails well»

And then came #AI.

@pluralistic nails it:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/#graceful-failure-modes

#CodeIsLaw #CS #code

Code is a liability, not an infinitely reproducible machine that requires no labor inputs to operate. It is a brittle machine that eventually "wears out" and needs a top-to-bottom refactoring to keep being in good working order.

It's code's capabilities that are assets.

«"Writing code" is about making code that runs well. "Software engineering" is about making code that fails well»

And then came #AI.

@pluralistic nails it:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/#graceful-failure-modes

#CodeIsLaw #CS #code