Comment by natebc
14 hours ago
The part about "It's just a tool." that always bugged me is exactly this.
A Hammer is a tool ... a carpentry sub-contractor is not.
14 hours ago
The part about "It's just a tool." that always bugged me is exactly this.
A Hammer is a tool ... a carpentry sub-contractor is not.
> A Hammer is a tool ... a carpentry sub-contractor is not.
If human - the sub-contractor isn't a tool, if robot - it is. Similar to how a human digging trenches isn't a tool but a tractor-trencher is, even if autonomous.
You’ve made the same mistake that this thread is talking about.
It’s not about whether the abstraction is human or not, it’s the level of abstraction you can operate at. Using hand tools vs power tools as a bad analogy: you can use either and still become a good carpenter. If you have someone build your cabinets for you that’s a totally different level of abstraction and you don’t actually have any carpentry skills or knowledge.
> You’ve made the same mistake that this thread is talking about.
I'm not making a mistake, you're confusing abstract "abstractions" with concrete humans. Some humans aren't much into abstractions but that doesn't make them less human. LLMs manipulate human-created abstractions, similar to other software, but that doesn't make them human at all.
> Using hand tools vs power tools as a bad analogy
You're confused about my analogy too, here's what I said: "a human digging trenches isn't a tool but a tractor-trencher is, even if autonomous". Robotic, autonomous tractor-trenchers do manipulate abstractions and dig trenches but that doesn't make them human.
> a carpentry sub-contractor is not.
You sound like you're anthropomorphizing it. A hammer is a tool, yes, but a complex conveyor belt of "smart" hammers is still a tool. It's not a "sub-contractor" - you can't blame the belt when it starts hammering things the wrong way; you can't sue it; you can't reason with it; you can't punish it. You're still responsible for the outcome, thus it is a tool, because you're the one wielding it, using and operating it. But then you have to draw the line between a "tool" and "automation", that's what Rich is doing here. But that line is also, soooo debatable. My own usage of my harness changes from task to task, multiple times a day. Sometimes it's pure automation, sometimes it is absolutely a tool.