Makes me wonder if decompilation could eventually become so trivial that everything would become de-facto open source.

It would be "source available", if anything, not "open source".

> An open-source license is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified or shared (with or without modification) under defined terms and conditions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Companies have been really abusing what open source means- claiming something is "open source" cause they share the code and then having a license that says you can't use any part of it in any way.

Similarly if you ever use that software or depending on where you downloaded it from, you might have agreed not to decompile or read the source code. Using that code is a gamble.

Surely then people start using LLMs to obfuscate compiled source to the point that another LLM can’t deobfuscate it. I imagine it’s always easier to make something messy than clean. Something like a rule of thermodynamics or something :)

Though, that’s only for actively developer software. I can imagine a great future where all retro games are now source available.

I wonder when you're never going to run expensive software on your own CPU.

It'll either all be in the cloud, so you never run the code...

Or it'll be on a chip, in a hermetically sealed usb drive, that you plug in to your computer.

That's definitely a possible future abstraction and one are about the future of technology I'm excited about.

First we get to tackle all of the small ideas and side projects we haven't had time to prioritize.

Then, we start taking ownership of all of the software systems that we interact with on a daily basis; hacking in modifications and reverse engineering protocols to suit our needs.

Finally our own interaction with software becomes entirely boutique: operating systems, firmware, user interfaces that we have directed ourselves to suit our individual tastes.

This day will arrive.

And it will be great for retro game preservation.

Having more integrated tools and tutorials on this would be awesome.

Yes, I believe it will. What I predict will happen is that most commercial software will be hosted and provided through "trusted" platforms with limited access, making reverse engineering impossible.

When the decompilation like that is trivial, so is recreation without decompilation. It implies the LLM know exactly how thins work.

This deserves a discussion