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Software companies have been about automating human labor since the invention of computers. It's the whole damn point. Why do you think finance used to be (some
by tempaccount5050 5mo ago
Software companies have been about automating human labor since the invention of computers. It's the whole damn point. Why do you think finance used to be (sometimes still is) the head of the IT dept? Because we automated accounting away. Then typists. Then secretaries. Then drafting. Etc etc.
- claude_delusion 5mo ago[flagged]
- tempaccount5050 5mo ago"ok guys, that's enough progress since now it's my job at stake, we can stop."
- satvikpendem 5mo agoDon't make accounts just to add comments for a specific thread, you will get flagged.
- wiseowise 5mo ago> It's the whole damn point. Believe it or not, for some of us it’s not “the whole damn point”.
- grim_io 5mo agoNo one is taking away programming as a hobby from you :)
- tempaccount5050 5mo agoWhether or not you want to admit that is up to you. If you're selling automation or efficiency gains, you're removing human labor.
- gravypod 5mo agoMy first "job" in computing, where someone else paid me for code, was in a research context where we were modeling radio propagation. Nothing about that was removing human labor. It in face eventually called for a bunch of humans to interact with each other. See: https://www.hamsci.org/basic-project/2017-total-solar-eclipse https://www.hamsci.org/basic-project/2017-total-solar-eclips... I don't think it is fair to claim computers are about putting people out of jobs.
- Georgelemental 5mo agoHuman labor could do the math by hand
- aaomidi 5mo agoAnd in fact, was how it was done.
- tempaccount5050 5mo agoI think it is. Before computers you would have had to write all that down on paper logs. By using code, you saved yourself time. If it wasn't less labor, you wouldn't have done it that way.
- skeledrew 5mo agoWhy else would one create software, if not to do something that a human does/did?
- matt_kantor 5mo agoA few off the top of my head: - Video games - Medical device firmware - Synthesizers - Detailed universe-scale physics simulations - Mars rover control software - The Linux kernel
- tempaccount5050 5mo agoThis list is funny. All of these things existed in pre computer form. A scheduler used to be a person putting punch cards into a machine.
- TheRoque 5mo agoWhat's the human form of a video game ?
- matt_kantor 5mo agoMy reply in a sibling thread[0] is applicable here too. I'm not sure if you have the same things in mind as skeledrew, but at least this seems probably relevant: > If you broaden the criteria enough then you can interpret most anything as "something that a human does/did". Like: humans "have fun" and therefore video games don't count, or humans can jump therefore they "travel through the air" therefore airplanes are just "doing something that humans do". But I don't think this reading of the upthread comment leads to interesting discussion. I'd be happy to discuss specific examples of the "pre computer forms", if you provide some. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083805
- ori_b 5mo agoThe purpose of a system is what it does. If people constantly use your device to turn kittens into pulp, you have built a kitten grinder, even if the label you slapped on the side says "coffee beans only".
- sdevonoes 5mo agoThere are software components out there that are the backbone of our industry, and they are not governed by multibillion dollar companies. Linux, postgres, HTTP, TCP/IP, qemu,… It’s not that anthropic/google/openai/etc are unavoidable
- tomnipotent 5mo ago> they are not governed by multibillion dollar companies Every tech you mentioned is absolutely governed by multibillion dollar companies. Something like 75-85% of OSS code is contributed by employees doing their day job. Most Linux and Postgres contributions come from those same employees. HTTP and TCP/IP are managed by standard bodies and industry working groups that, you guessed it, are governed by multibillion dollar companies. Red Hat and IBM are responsible for 40-60% of contributions to Qemu.
- raj1298 5mo agoThe usual model for OSS projects is that initially they are written for free. Then an inner circle forms and exploits the second generation of idealists who write entire large features without ever getting the same rights. Some of the inner circle move to corporations to increase their power and are joined by corporate developers (sometimes their bosses) to take over the project. A lot of corporate OSS development are entirely unnecessary rewrites or simple things like release management. So I'd put the number of useful code by employees much lower. But governed, hell yeah, I agree. The corporations crack the whip and oppress real contributors.
- tomnipotent 5mo agoThis is a nice fantasy, but that's all it is. Most of the code used by corporations is also mostly contributed to by other corporations. Contributions by volunteers is the exception for most of the projects in this context. I also don't think this is a bad thing.
- dakiol 5mo agoThe way I understood op is that we don't necessarily have to pay to use linux or postgres (when self hosting, for example). But we have to pay to use claude code... which sucks big time (also, open source models are behind private models)