I appreciate the well written reply.

For the ethics, I personally think these things should be nationalized / universalized, given that it runs on mass theft. That’s Meta’s argument: we stole so much, you can’t hold us legally accountable. Sure thing bud: let’s get half your profit then?

For the environmental, to me, it’s akin to driving a car. It’s very socially acceptable to do that in most places in the US. Does it contribute to worsening environment and have long term impacts? Yup, sure does. I have 1 car for our family. We used to have 2. We made a positive step, but we couldn’t lower to one. Does it make me a bad person? I don’t think so. Proportionally, I don’t think my AI usage is that impactful compared to Meta/Amazon/big tech company. Is it still bad? Yup, sure is.

That’s the reason I sidestep those, along with simplifying a complex topic I knew I would be flamed for.

Literacy matters. Seems like you’re trying to push on “what if we all did it?” And yeah, there’s some idiocracy future potential. However, I don’t think it’s addressing the issue. I mentioned John Henry because that’s partially what his story is about: man v. machine. People likely wrote faster with typewriters, and I bet people claimed literacy would go down with them. Maybe? But the reading is really essential in this process. That’s my claim.

I’ll grant there’s a degree problem with the IDE analogy, but I still think it’s a technological progression that makes rational sense.

I wouldn’t make shovelware. Many people will. I’ve said to friends I expect a Cambrian explosion. Life in all forms, good or bad. We’ll get apps that could never have been made and the worst malware to exist. It’s a Pandora’s box. The internet made us closer and brought out a lot of evil in the world. To me, internet & AI are tools, not inherently good or bad. (Philosophically, if there was no thieving of data)

I think you’re making reasonable points. I also think most people have not reconciled “it’s faster to read than to type.” It’s a strange inversion in AI workflows that comes from the mechanics at play.

• Machine read speed: 1m wpm (96k per 5 secs, based on token usage of a well known model)
• Machine write speed: ~6000 wpm (again, based on token usage & turnaround)

It’s not that we’re close. We’re miles apart. If we’re in a capitalistic hellscape (which, I think there’s maybe some evidence for, given on friendly convo :) ), then my competitor will beat me on speed. Why would I move a bunch of product on a hand cart vs. a train?

Thanks for the human interaction, by the way. I appreciate you engaging in earnest.

I think you’re missing my point, but if you’re gonna brand me as “corpo” without giving me a chance, then hope you have a nice day, homie. I’m not the enemy here.

I’m not trying to argue the sentiment, but my guess is the people that downvoted me don’t want to hear about the physical limits.

Here’s a similar version: is the human the best interface for code? I’m not convinced. Humans make mistakes when typing, we forget things. I once spent 2 days on a bug back in 2018 because an array was named “Cards” and I referenced “Card.”

Obviously, we’re the end user. The EXPERIENCE is for humans. Are we the best tool to enter code manually? I’m just not convinced.

I’m hearing stories from my engineering friends and colleagues that, for the last 6 months, 90% of their code has been AI written. I believe the engineers are smarting than me here, and that’s what they are doing.

It’s a capitalistic hellscape, bad ethics everywhere, and I’m not trying to apologize for the companies being malicious or bad actors. I’m not saying I’m morally justified. Putting that aside: what benefits do I get from writing the code myself vs describing it, if describing it generates the end result faster?

Y’all, my whole career is this field. I study philosophy and ethics undergrad. I know people don’t want to hear about it. What would you do as a rational actor in this scenario? I got 3 kids and a mortgage. :/

This will be a controversial opinion, but as a game developer of 14 years, AI integrations for game development are going to be standard, at least on coding.

Since we’re in PCMR, I’ll make an assumption there’s a lot of gamers here. What’s the fastest human write speed? <330wpm. What’s the fastest human read speed? Like 1000wpm. What’s the AI equivalents? We know AI can beat us on both metrics. If this was a game, what should you do? It seems like, logically, you’d focus on reading more than writing, because that’s just faster, and since the AI can beat you on the speed of writing, doesn’t it make sense to have it do that process?

The last decade or longer of IDE development has been “programmer write less.” How is AI’s writing of code much different?

Even if you were the perfect programmer, you can never beat the physical speed limits here. You can be more logically sound, make smarter decisions, but you cannot write code faster than AI.

Video games aren’t medical apps, legal apps, security apps, etc. This means lower stakes to sloppier code architecture. If a version is bad, we patch it.

Y’all… I really don’t want to admit it, but this “John Henry” line for AI is hard for me to reconcile. The one piece of solace I keep is “AI companies keep hiring human devs.” It suggests, at some level, we still need a human in the machine.

I have never felt my livelihood is under attack like this. We’re at like a +60% y/y increase of tech layoffs this year (compared to last). At the same time, there’s amazing freedom to talk to a rock and get a video game. If I was laid off tomorrow, I could use $20/mon to make a prototype I could market in like 2-3 months as a solo. That was never possible.

I’m used to reading the board state & making good decisions. This is the first time I’ve felt like the game changed dramatically around me. This sentiment is also all over my whisper network. This is more than “one person’s take.” We’re all feeling this. :(

https://youtu.be/2twY8YQYDBE

https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

I don’t think there’s some poison pill or fundamental flaw. It regresses to the mean for the context of the problem.

I think you’re writing something off too quickly, but that’s your life to live. No judgment.

Have a good one.

There is a vast gap between casual AI usage (chatbots, meme images) and AI-based coding / agentic engineering. There’s also nuances between “vibe coding” and using AI as a tool to write code.

Most engineers I know are basically not writing code. They know good code practice, they understand software architecture, and the core drive for coding environments / IDEs has been “help programmers type less / be more efficient.” AI in coding is a big evolution of that, especially because of the mechanisms humans use to read & write. We cannot read faster than we write, so it’s faster to read. The AI can write much faster than we can. Therefore, you use the AI to write & execute the plan, with engineers reviewing the output.

For my own industry (game development), AI has been kinda nuts the last few months in terms of rapid acceleration of development. It’s amazing for prototyping concepts that won’t go to market in their prototype form, and that cuts down on risk, downstream impacts to actual engineering requests, art, etc.

This creates the potential for a captured market (software development) with AI-usage seen as human speedups. It’s unclear whether people are in fact more productive right now, but it’s humans fumbling around with new tools. I’m kind of afraid how far AI could advance in a very short period of time. Many of my friends are using recursive techniques to improve their AI workflows (asking the AI “how could we do this better?”).

C- & D- level have massive amounts of their portfolio in AI tech while spurring on employees, “you must use this!” That part is an ouroboros / inflationary bubble.

This is putting aside all the ethics for stealing literally everyone’s stuff, the water usage, problems with capitalism, and so on. Please don’t take what I say as, “AI is good!” It’s just more complicated than that.

This gap is so hard to explain. A lot of common folks are seeing chatbots screw up counting R’s in strawberry, but I can talk to a rock & a game comes out built on web frameworks I barely know because knowing the language isn’t super important compared to what comes out.

I’m very worried about the captured market being developed. AI chatbots are a surface level, consumer product to get some revenue. AI integrated into an IDE & coding pipeline is a different beast, and it’s creating a faster development pace beholden to token/credit payments. Do you want to develop a feature now or in 6 months?

Things are not that simple. AI code inherits the same issues of LLMs (regression to mean). Certain things, such as single player video games, can be an absolute slopfest with code / security. Other industries with more restrictions (health data), more real world outcomes (finance, legal) will run into major issues. Those stories have been bubbling up & they are getting more prominent.

The taste of “code but faster” speaks to the capitalist class to be maximalist. We get this engine where C level is investing in AI, having their mind blown, while people close to code see the gaps that exist still. C level spurs on “use this more!” which in turn benefits their portfolios making bets on “more people will use this.” Meanwhile, codebases degrade, and a new generation, who was told “a CS degree is super safe”, have had the rug pulled from them.

I know many engineers/professional developers now who feel “ungrounded”, “lost at sea”, “unclear” of what happens next. We see great potential, RIGHT NOW, because this is likely the lowest cost for these services. All of this will ramp up, either in monthly cost, token cost, rate limiting. In a year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Claude code’s monthly cost has tripled, or there’s more tiers with less availability.

OpenSeek, OpenClaw, etc., have promise for us not terminating in some (further) capitalistic hellscape.

I felt really good at knowing what will happen in 2-3 years within tech, after 14 years of doing this. I’m really, really concerned right now, but I’m also trying to use the tools while they are cheap. Maybe I can make some of my dream games before we all explode. I dunno. 🤷

Be woke: https://usmilitary.com/from-18-to-45-a-comprehensive-look-at-us-military-draft-ages/

They will push this shit, after they raised the age, and political dissidents will go to the war front. See Russian playbook.

There’s a lot of chatter in thread about humans, but there are studies on apes & chimps having a sense of justice. Justice is not morality, but they are closely related.

My guess is that, from an evolutionary standpoint, animals & early humans that could work together had a better success chance. Collaboration requires some rules, even if that’s monkeys getting grapes or cucumbers.

Is there some physical material evidence of morality? No, probably not. However, there is likely more to this story than “We got all our own morals, maaaaaan. It’s all relative.” There’s also concepts like “love” without a perfectly material understanding. Doesn’t make it less important. 🤷

“Not sure why” = American propaganda against “communism”

This quote is insane after this last week…

• Attacks Pope, angers Catholics
• Jesus photos, angers Evangelicals
• ”Give up rights for great American military!”, will anger Libertarians (they are single issue here)

It feels like someone is giving him terrible advice, like trying to actively sabotage his base. The Daily Show had a bit about him looking tired and not trying to lie anymore. It sort of feels like that too. Maybe he just really doesn’t care.

Bonkers week on this front.

John 13:34, Matthew 5:9, Matthew 26:52, Luke 6:27

The Pope is right to bring Jesus’ word to light here, if Vance is truly faithful. I wish you peace, verily.

My point. He is infallible, specifically in this matter.

If a core Catholic belief is the pope is infallible, especially in the domain of theology & religion, then why is Vance saying any of this? Sure seems like his “Catholicism” is name alone or perhaps his faith is more Protestant than he wants to admit. Or, he has values above his faith, and for a Catholic, that seems worse.

Whatever, Jan.

Edit: I’m ex-Catholic. I don’t need a theology lesson about the specifics. What the Pope is expressing here is within the domain of church doctrine.

Stop trying to defend fascists with pedantic details.

Yeah, I don’t get how JD internalizes the Pope. For a Catholic, the Pope is supposed to be a/The voice of God. Looks like JD got no reverence for what God is trying to communicate.

Really funny to see a man dedicate his life to these values just to see him say, “God, can you not give me guidance right now? I’m doing war stuff.”

John 13:34, homie. Sorry Jan—your homeboy said it, not me.

https://youtu.be/ElxXXTpw8Cg 3 yr old, not sure if still true

I worry about govt’s misusing it. I’m still a big UBI fan, but after seeing it employed in Captain Laserhawk, it made me aware of how it can be a cudgel of a corrupt govt as well.

Operation Cyclone again? I thought we already did this episode…

I have good friends that are Kurdish immigrants who fled Saddam, but this won’t work. It’ll be the same shit, arming another group, spreading wars, and creating ripple effects we can’t perceive.