Comment by skybrian
15 hours ago
Software engineers have been automating away workers' jobs from the beginning. "Computer" was once a job title. There were armies of switchboard operators at the phone company. Companies had typing pools, mail clerks, and file clerks. We write shell scripts and development tools to automate our own jobs.
Most of us got into engineering for the means (programming computers) rather than the ends (automating away jobs).
I guess the people that have been rejoicing from the AI revolution are of the latter type.
Or maybe they find the idea of computers that can think just as exciting as you found programming at the start of your career?
I never found the idea of a thinking computer exciting, just as I don’t find the idea of a thinking screwdriver exciting.
These days I see the ultimate goal to create a super-intelligence to be blasphemous, if not existentially dangerous and I am afraid by how nonchalant everybody is about it.
I quite enjoy a reality where humans and biological life are in control of their destiny, but it’s apparently become a taboo opinion around these parts.
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Those were electrical engineers, digital switches came out later... regardless we are talking about labor of a much larger industry.