JuliaCon 2026

The practice of programming computers has seen more upheaval in the last year than any time since the introduction of the first "high level" languages like Fortran and Lisp. Many of the concerns, however, remain the same: How can we trust what the computer generates? Should a programmer have to understand everything their computer does? How can we be certain the outcome of running a program is deterministic? The battle lines in this dispute have been drawn, but in this talk we will explore how the emerging conflict is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding.

If, as the famous quote goes, "programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute", then the real problem is not that we're asking LLMs to generate code we aren't reading, but rather that programmers have been writing fundamentally unreadable code for a generation! Languages such as Python and Javascript have been developed for a decade or more with a such a focus on making machines execute that they've failed to develop the necessary features to enhance people's ability to read and understand code.

Together we will explore the ways in which Julia, with its Lisp heritage, elegant type system, and focus on multiple dispatch, is the perfect language for the coming era of machines increasingly writing code on their own. This talk is not just a sales pitch for using Julia in your next Vibe-coding session, though. We will also look at how existing tools in both the Julia language itself and a handful of available packages can be combined to not only allay the concerns of those who worry about handing the reins over to the machines, but also to make coding Julia hand-in-hand with the machines more powerful than any of the alternatives.