Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it • Hacker News Board

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#11

Post by ohadpr » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 1:47 PM UTC

jonben wrote: post #9

Super curious. State isn't just memory though, it's the whole concept of persistence.

Totally agree. Persistence is a huge part of what we usually mean by state. Nothing stops this from plugging into a real database when needed. But also, nothing stops us from rethinking what a database even is, especially in a world where LLMs have growing context windows and can carry more state internally. Maybe persistence doesn’t always have to mean "write to disk."

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#12

Post by pozon10 » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#13

Post by matanz25 » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

Can't stop thinking about "what else is possible"

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#14

Post by uri_merhav » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 3:25 PM UTC

Very cool demo.

But isn't the point of an app being able to maintain a sharable worldview and state?

This "improvised just for you" sounds like a natural fit for a text adventure for example, but I'm still grappling with how this might apply to a real life use case.

One can conceivably imagine imagine LLMs one day transforming states for sharing on-the-fly as well, but it does sound very fragile.

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#15

Post by seizethecheese » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 4:31 PM UTC

uri_merhav wrote: post #14

Very cool demo. But isn't the point of an app being able to maintain a sharable worldview and state? This "improvised just for you" sounds like a natural fit for a text adventure for example, but I'm still grappling with how this might apply to a real life use case. One can conceivably imagine imagine LLMs one day transforming states for sharing on-the-fly as well, but it does sound very fragile.

A good real world example might be a super specific tool that I want to make for my own use.

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#16

Post by seizethecheese » Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

jonben wrote: post #9

Super curious. State isn't just memory though, it's the whole concept of persistence.

I’m not sure I understand the distinction between persistence and memory

Re: Voidware: Software that only exists when you use it

#17

Post by ohadpr » Tue, Jul 15, 2025, 5:36 AM UTC

seizethecheese wrote: post #16

jonben wrote: post #9

Super curious. State isn't just memory though, it's the whole concept of persistence.

I’m not sure I understand the distinction between persistence and memory

In the context of LLMs memory can often mean a broadly defined, application-specific ability to detect, retain and re-use bits of useful context along the journey. In contrast to Persistence which is more like a DB with a schema and clear expectations, reliability, etc.