_015945 “Well, this certainly buggers our plan to conquer the Universe.” Dalek Trouble “All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky.” Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015946 Consequences achines cannot discover theorems using algorithms, yet AY Eee do it all the time.

ow which of these specifications to take with a pinch of salt and when they are likely to leak. They are battle scarred by previous naivety. I think Spolsky’s Law follows from Rice’s Theorem and ultimately from Turing’s no halting proof. If leak-less abstraction was possible you could, in principle, write

ctions of the American Mathematical Society 74, no. 2 (1953): 358-66. Ruohonen, Keijo. “Hilbertin Kymmenes Probleema.’ Arkhimedes, no. 1 (1972): 2. Spolsky, J. “The Law of Leaky Abstractions? November 11, 2002. http://www. joelonsoftware.com. Tegmark, Max. “The Mathematical Universe.’ Foundations of Phy

1 Special Purpose Objection 253 Special Relativity 348 speed of light 317 spell checkers 139 spin 343 Spolsky, Joel 256 Law of Leaky Abstractions 256 Spolsky’s Law 267 spreadsheet 237 Stanford University 30 starch 118 Star Trek 157, 348 Star Wars 79 static intelligence 32 statistical approach 8 Stern, Will