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cover of episode The Coding Language Caught in DOGE's Crosshairs

The Coding Language Caught in DOGE's Crosshairs

2025/4/16
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Brooke Gladstone
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Clive Thompson
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Brooke Gladstone: 我报道了DOGE计划重写社保局代码库，这是一个所谓的现代化项目，但其具体含义并不清晰。这个项目涉及数百万美国人的个人和财务数据，因此风险极高。 Clive Thompson: Musk的计划核心是COBOL系统，这是一种古老的编程语言，广泛应用于银行和政府机构。COBOL的优势在于它能够轻松处理财务数字，并且经过长期使用和维护，许多COBOL代码已经非常稳定可靠。然而，目前很少有年轻人学习COBOL，导致精通COBOL的程序员人才短缺。年轻程序员更喜欢开发新系统，而不是维护旧系统，这使得COBOL系统的维护和更新变得困难。 许多银行尝试过重写COBOL系统，但最终都失败了或成本远超预期。例如，纽约时报重写其COBOL系统耗时三年且困难重重。新泽西州的失业系统崩溃并非因为COBOL系统本身，而是因为中间件（管理Web层的代码）存在问题。 重写社保局系统困难重重，原因在于代码本身非常复杂，经过多年的修改和补丁，已经变得难以理解。重写需要详细记录系统的所有功能，然后用新的语言重新编写，这是一个非常费力的过程。虽然最终应该重写社保局的COBOL后端系统，但这个过程需要谨慎，不能操之过急。 政府曾有一些团队致力于在旧系统之上添加新的功能，但这些团队现在已经被解散了。DOGE计划利用AI来加速代码重写，但这在大型项目中效果不佳。许多大型经济系统运行良好，是因为它们运行谨慎，缓慢发展，而不是快速迭代。对现有系统进行现代化改造需要谨慎，避免造成严重后果。

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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been edged out of the headlines this past week, or so, by the administration’s current flirtation with a constitutional crisis. But the DOGE team is still busy. One project on the office's agenda, originally reported by WIRED) late last month, is to rewrite the Social Security Administration's code base—in other words, the agency's computer programs, which handle millions of Americans’ personal and financial data. Brooke sits down with Clive Thompson**,**) author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World), contributing writer to New York Times Magazine, and monthly columnist for Wired, to discuss the coding language under DOGE's microscope.   

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