The introduction of looms wasn’t what displaced workers.
It was capitalists seeking profits by reducing the power of labour to negotiate.
We didn’t mass layoff carpenters once we had power tools and automation.
We had more carpenters.
Just like we had more programmers once we invented compilers and higher level languages.
LLMs just aren’t like power tools. Most programming tools aren’t like power tools.
Programming languages might be close to being “power tools,” as they fit in the “centaur” category. I could write the assembly by hand or write the bash scripts that deploy my VMs in the cloud. But instead I can write a program, give it to a compiler, and it will generate the code for me.
LLM generated code fits in the reverse-centaur category. I’m giving it instructions and context but I’m not doing the work. It is. My labour is to feed the machine and deliver its output. If there was a way to remove me from that loop, you bet I’d be out of a job in a heartbeat.
It was capitalists seeking profits by reducing the power of labour to negotiate.
We didn’t mass layoff carpenters once we had power tools and automation.
We had more carpenters.
Just like we had more programmers once we invented compilers and higher level languages.
LLMs just aren’t like power tools. Most programming tools aren’t like power tools.
Programming languages might be close to being “power tools,” as they fit in the “centaur” category. I could write the assembly by hand or write the bash scripts that deploy my VMs in the cloud. But instead I can write a program, give it to a compiler, and it will generate the code for me.
LLM generated code fits in the reverse-centaur category. I’m giving it instructions and context but I’m not doing the work. It is. My labour is to feed the machine and deliver its output. If there was a way to remove me from that loop, you bet I’d be out of a job in a heartbeat.