These days, that's not entirely true. Programs can now modify their own programming, because some languages allow for meta-programming. Still... they have to have a starting point.

@bingst I was usually laughing and only a little high as I told people my work included telling computers what to do, how to do it, when to start doing it, and importantly when to stop doing it. I sometimes “patched” machine code into “patch space” (are those terms still used?) and could have written viruses but wanted to continue getting paid.

@yvilletom Patch is still used. I can't say that I've ever heard the term "patch space."

@bingst Patch space was a block of memory in large aps such as compilers left unused so bug fixes could be put there.