Of all the existential questions that plague me, this is perhaps the most thorny:

[intrepidhero@vmst.io]

Of all the existential questions that plague me, this is perhaps the most thorny:

What's the difference between code and data?

#compsci #programming #philosophy

[louisrcouture@jasette.facil.services]

@intrepidhero code is data but data isn't always code

[jnkrtech@social.treehouse.systems]

@intrepidhero IMO most programs are interpreters and their inputs are languages which control their functioning when interpreted. YAML config file, video file, HTTP request body, parser CLI args… all code.

This is just the view from where I’m standing though. From a different direction code is data, too.

[intrepidhero@vmst.io]

@jnkrtech exactly! From a certain frame of reference, it's all code, or it's all data. Like the wave/particle duality, these are concepts that we use to describe a more complex reality.

[jnkrtech@social.treehouse.systems]

@intrepidhero are you familiar with http://langsec.org/ ? The idea of “weird machines” was mindblowing for me and is what first set me into this viewpoint