Comment by swalsh

Imagine the potential of a world where anything can be built nearly instantly. If a computer can program itself, we can concentrate on trying to come up with useful things to make, instead of worrying about what we're capable of making. I have a really cool idea for a video game, but it's not going to be made because I don't have time to build it... but if a computer could make it. Wow. I become an imagineer, not a software engineer.

Step it up a level further, if computers could think of programs to build themselves (which they probably would have to if they are going to be anywhere close to practical), that's when the "singularity" truely starts to take off. At the speed that computers operate, programs would very quickly go beyond what humans are capable of.