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Discussion (35 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
A common response is usually something like "now I get to focus on the actual engineering process rather than the code" but IMO it's sort of missing the bigger picture and is almost a coping mechanism. People should use whatever tools they want to be productive but enjoyment/happiness should not be thrown out.
I can't speak for anyone else, but in my workplace this is being said by people who have never cared about the engineering process before. It's pure cope
I find building more enjoyable than engineering, personally. Engineering is the boring necessary stuff that needs to be done, building is the fun reward for doing a good job engineering.
If you add that to the market expectation that most work will become redundant then it’s not hard to see why people are fearful of AI.
https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report/publi... [1]
Guns, cars, knives, explosives, dangerous chemicals, etc. are all tools. They’re just inanimate things that have the potential for massive (potentially lethal) consequences. You can argue that malware or nuclear reactors or chainsaws are “just tools” and it doesn’t make them any less dangerous in the wrong hands.
People who say “Well AI is just a tool” are at best being pedantic, and at worst trying to recast valid concerns as fear mongering
what do you think my comment said you halfwit.
Every tool for thousands of years has eliminated jobs. I don’t think the quality of life is down, compared to say the dark ages.
There are a lot of people outside the realms of "HN" and adjacent lands for whom having any kind job is necessary for survival.
> Should a warehouse have guys carrying around boxes on their back or have a forklift?
While we can optimize for efficiency -- why should we? for the sake of improved quality of life for those who can already afford it, via an ever increasing wage gap? why do we need to replace them? so a manager can pocket a few extra grand at bonus time? so there can be a few bigger numbers on a spreadsheet somewhere?
what if some of those people end up dying? do you think you could live with that? i know couldn't.
The rationale sounds a lot more like thought terminating clichés and an emotional rationalization for not wanting to see the world change on you, than any depiction of reality.
Workers who will be replaced now are already specialized and highly educated in a specific skill. Remember when Obama said that displaced miners and factory workers should "learn to code"? Well where do coders and other highly educated knowledge workers go once we get displaced? I am not disparaging miners more just wondering like... can you squeeze much more cognitively and emotionally out of workers?
It feels like we are closing in on the endgame of 100s of years of improving the tools.
Gonna see what happens when I get out eventually. I’m sure my colleagues still have some potentials…
But idk, I didn't study a PhD in marketing and psychology and whatnot.
In the 1800s if your body/mind worked relatively well you had value. That was all it took.
Then we industrialized everything and having a body wasn't worth much anymore, You needed to have a healthy body/mind and educate yourself in a specific skill.
Now we are staring down a reality where having a healthy body/mind, an education and skillset isn't worth much. So what is next?
At the end of the day we all just want to feel like we have a place, but our kids are looking at a future where they can prepare themselves 24/7 and still be easily replaceable. We probably need some kind of post-capitalist view of human value or people if we keep raising the minimum requirements to have worth in society.
Absent some kind of worldwide revolution, the U.S. will essentially need to start from zero and work their way up the value chain the same way China did over the last forty something years. It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.
I don't think this is true at all. It's more that when faced with something that is making your life worse right now, there isn't any solace in an ephemeral speculation that it might be great in the future.