Also, formal methods, like AI, suffered a "research winter" after making grand promises that they weren't actually able to keep. The hype initially drew a lot of funding, and with the disappointment came a period of relative neglect. Have those two unsubstantiated-hype-prone disciplines learned the lessons and are able to lower their sights to what's attainable, or will they end up wasting a lot of time and money? I guess we'll see. I think that at least the formal methods community is more cautious now, and focuses on reducing various classes of bugs rather than promising affordable 100% correct software.
Also, formal methods, like AI, suffered a "research winter" after making grand promises that they weren't actually able to keep. The hype initially drew a lot of funding, and with the disappointment came a period of relative neglect. Have those two unsubstantiated-hype-prone disciplines learned the lessons and are able to lower their sights to what's attainable, or will they end up wasting a lot of time and money? I guess we'll see. I think that at least the formal methods community is more cautious now, and focuses on reducing various classes of bugs rather than promising affordable 100% correct software.