2 ms·
A blacksmith was a person that picked up chunks of carbon and heated them to they were glowing red and beat the iron to submission with a hammer in their hands.
by pixl97 9mo ago
A blacksmith was a person that picked up chunks of carbon and heated them to they were glowing red and beat the iron to submission with a hammer in their hands.
Today iron is produced by machines in factories by the mega-tonne.
We just happened to live in the age where code when from being beaten by hand to a mass produced product.
And so the change of technology goes.
- cenamus 9mo agoAnd the blacksmiths losing their jobs are not allowed to feel bad about it?
- 52-6F-62 9mo agoNo. By this logic, if they wanted to stay with the times they should have sought capital investment for their own industrial forges, joined their local lodges, climbed the ranks, lobbied their governments for loose safety regulations, and plied their workers with propaganda about how "we're in a recession and have to tighten our belts". Think of the wonderful world we could have if everyone just got their shit together and became paper trillionaire technocrats.
- pixl97 9mo agoThe software world pretty much demanded this outcome. Go back 10 years and post "SWE's should form labor unions" Then watch as your post drops to [dead] and people scream "How dare you rob me of theoretical millions of dollars I'll be making". I wonder how many of these same downvoters are now worried about getting replaced with AI.
- varjag 9mo agoLet's keep it real. No union would save your jobs against a manyfold productivity gain of machines.
- lowbloodsugar 9mo agoSome of them feel bad about it and some of them refined metallurgy to build Saturn V rockets and go to space. We are very much living in the new space race. The discussion here is split 50/50 between the “Thank you! I feel the same way” folks and the “I am having the time of my life!” folks.
- rootusrootus 9mo agoEspecially anyone in their 40s or 50s who is close enough to retirement that a career shift is unappealing but far enough from retirement that a layoff now would meaningfully change that timeline or QOL. I don't blame people for feeling uneasy. I'm probably 7 or 8 years from an easy retirement myself, so I can appreciate how that feels. Nobody really wants to feel disruption at this age, especially when they're the breadwinner for a family.
- chasd00 9mo ago> far enough from retirement that a layoff now would meaningfully change that timeline or QOL yeah this is where i am. Turning 50 in April, I have two boys about to hit college and the bills associated with that and i have 15 years before i'm forced to retire. I have to up the salary to pay/help for college and i have to keep the 401k maxed + catchups maxed over the next 15 years to pull off retirement. The change from AI is scary, it may be good for me or it may be devastating. Staring down that barrel and making career decisions with no room for error (no time to rebuild) is pretty harrowing.
- pixl97 9mo agoYou either become a foreman operating the machines or a Luddite burning them.
- tavavex 9mo agoWhat if in reality it's not one or the other, but having 10% odds of being good enough to be selected to become a technician operating the machines, 10% odds of getting so enraged as to dedicate your lives to pushing back, and 80% odds of being shoved out due to lower demand and value of your work, having to go do something else, if you still can?
- newsoftheday 9mo agoBlacksmiths were replaced by factories which produced deterministic products with 100% predictability. AI can't produce code yet with 100% predictability. If that day ever arrives, the blacksmith analogy will be apt.