/prog/rider's secret society

We should create a club/lodge for programmers. If stonemasons created one many years ago just because they knew how to carve stupid stones and build some basic structures, why we still don't have one?
This is what we need:
◦ A symbol.
◦ A secret handshake.
◦ A set of rules.
◦ An unknown leader.
◦ An unknown sub-leader.
◦ A library with exceptional computer books, a printed version of world4ch's /prog/ (aka The Old Testament), ancient computers, and other relics.
◦ A list of heretic languages carved in stone.

>>15
That's a perfect solution, which in fact already exists here and there.

Design and manufacture an understandable (and auditable!) computer like >>13 said.

Ok, but something we can actually do within, say, six months or a year. I mean that I support that idea, and I'll work on it, but we need to break it into smaller pieces if we ever want to release something. I'm assuming that we're all software people (although if anyone here knows electrical and/or mechanical engineering, please speak up), which means that we're restricted to programming; we also (for now) have to limit ourselves to a narrow goal.

For me, I would like to see some way to rapidly analyse and modify complex data sets. Be aware that the remainder of this paragraph is pulled straight out my ass. However: last year I was working on software that was supposed to recognize faces, facial features, skin, etc. Rather than coding it (as I did), then looking at the results, then going back and tweaking endlessly, I would like to see a way to take a dataset - an image, or, say, spectrographic data, or a sound file, and apply mathematical transformations to it just by issuing some simple commands. Maybe have a "math mode" to plug in equations and an "English mode" where you could name the mathematical functions. Machine learning and a memory of which algorithms chained together worked in similar situations would definitely be an asset. Is that workable? The reason I think it fits loosely into the goal of creating a readily-understood computer is that it makes complex math fairly easy. I could see similar tools being used in electronics design, for example.

Speaking of which, another thought I had a while ago was a "compiler" or "high level language" for electronic circuits. Basically, shove in component X (an IC?) and component Y (I don't know, a Voltage source), say "here are the data sheets, hook these things together at points a, b and c, and make sure nothing goes over/under voltage/current." The software would figure out the resistors, transformers, voltage converters, etc. and bang, instant circuit. Supposedly. If that's not NP-hard, and heck, maybe even if it is. But anyway, that's something that might help too. Thoughts?