The first programs were written in binary/hexadecimal, and only later did we invent coding languages to convert between human readable code and binary machine code.

So why can’t we just do the same thing in reverse? I hear a lot about devices from audio streaming to footware rendered useless by abandonware. Couldn’t a very smart person (or AI) just take the existing program and turn it into code?

  • ImplyingImplications
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    25 days ago

    It’s always possible to convert binary (machine code) into assembly since they’re basically the same thing. Assembly is just human readable binary.

    It’s not possible to generate high level source code from assembly the same way you can’t generate a recipe for a cake by analyzing the composition of the cake. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, the temperature the oven was set at and time the cake spent in the oven can’t be found in the molecular structure of a cake.