[kbenson]

Okay, so the only other alternative is to create your own processor[1], manually type the machine code required for a C compiler, and then start from that. Sheesh.

Really, this is what everything in life is like. Every time you cross a bridge, you are implicitly trusting the builders who built it, the engineers who designed it, the mechanical engineering processes they used, and the mathematical disciplines that they rely on, all the way down to their fundamental axioms. You have to extend trust at some point there as well, otherwise you can start by proving there exists a class of numbers we will call integers...

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9755742

[runjake]

I agree with you, my point was to illustrate that at some point, everyone needs to place some trust (even if implicitly). I'm as paranoid as the next person, but this is just the reality.

[kbenson]

Yeah, that "sheesh" wasn't directed at you, but at the even more ludicrous amount of work required to not have to trust a third party. The response wasn't a rebuttal, I just felt I had more to say. :)

[serge2k]

got you covered http://www.idc.ac.il/tecs/