References are like jumps

In a high-level language, the programmer is deprived of the dangerous power to update his own program while it is running. Even more valuable, he has the power to split his machine into a number of separate variables, arrays, files, etc.; when he wishes to update any of these he must quote its name explicitly on the left of the assignment, so that the identity of the part of the machine subject to

[cu39]

"In Rust, references are mutable or aliased, but never both, and the entire system of lifetime variables and borrow analysis is designed to ensure that this remains true."