Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
I know how to code, how to manage programs, how to architect huge safety-critical systems, and quite a few other things, and I know that you are right. I’d give it 5 to 7 years if it were adequately resourced, there was political commitment, and the stakeholders could be made to agree a set of requirements, then not change them unless there’s a really convincing reason (conflicts with other requirements, impossible to implement, breaks everything, etc).
And the validation and verification of such a system could itself take a year or more, if it’s well-planned and correctly executed.
I know how to code, how to manage programs, how to architect huge safety-critical systems, and quite a few other things, and I know that you are right. I’d give it 5 to 7 years if it were adequately resourced, there was political commitment, and the stakeholders could be made to agree a set of requirements, then not change them unless there’s a really convincing reason (conflicts with other requirements, impossible to implement, breaks everything, etc).
And the validation and verification of such a system could itself take a year or more, if it’s well-planned and correctly executed.