Slightly OT: static typing

[Michael Hobbs]

Has anyone else read "Objects Have Failed" by Richard P. Gabriel?
http://www.dreamsongs.com/NewFiles/ObjectsHaveFailed.pdf

Regardless of your bias toward or against OOP[1], I found the sections on
static typing to be somewhat relevant to the current design of Erlang and
its possible future directions. One choice quote:

    What the static types are trying to do is to make sure that a
    program cannot fail at runtime. Yet, for living systems to be
    created, they must be able to sustain a failure and repair
    itself. This is part of a doomed attempt to eliminate errors
    and write perfect systems.

Opinions?
- Michael Hobbs


[1] My own personal bias toward OOP is that it is a fine paradigm, but is
significantly overused, especially inheritance. I prefer spatial locality
of code and tend to shy away from systems that allow too much
action-at-a-distance.