- 1980s: memory K/MB, 1-10MHz CPUs, simple software, testing-sufficient.
C fit in 64KB; Lisp needed 40MB and GC cycles. The market chose throughput.
- Today: memory and transistors are free (billions on an ARM core).
Software is too complex for testing alone. Cost of failure > cost of
verification.
- Inversion: 1980s said correctness is a luxury. 2020s says correctness
is the only affordable option.
- Passepartout exploits this: verification appliance for K/year replaces
00K/year in compliance failures.
- The historical fork: C won on economics, not merit — RISC/commodity PC
ecosystem optimized for C, not for Lisp
- Passepartout's reversal path: verification appliance vertical → FPGA
Lisp μcode → custom ASIC economics
- Lisp for embedded: compile-to-C (ECL, PreScheme), tiny Lisps (uLisp,
FemtoLisp), Lisp-as-macro-generator for C
- Microbiology as Lisp: DNA homoiconicity, hot-reloadable image, auto GC,
interpreted execution, self-modifying source, duck typing, concurrent
real-time GC (apoptosis)
- Biology proves the Lisp model is efficient at planetary scale
