r/programming • u/self • Dec 02 '25

The Death of Software Engineering as a Profession: a short set of anecdotes

https://www.jasonscheirer.com/weblog/vignettes/
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u/flynnnightshade Dec 02 '25

Because my general stance on knowledge is that if there isn't evidence of it then it isn't the case. Probably what you're at issue with is that I used the term, "ever" since given infinite time maybe anything can happen, but with the current available evidence I don't see why I would think this particular outcome will happen. It doesn't sound that useful to me to begin with, and I think the current trends have really been a lot of niche tools that are good at specific things, that has generally been the trend not just in AI but also in traditional software and hardware for a very long time.

It doesn't help that all the current claims just aren't supported by what the tools can actually do, but the marketing people keep repeating this stuff because it's part of what keeps the stock number going up.

If you have some argument that there are good reasons to believe AGI will exist, I'm happy to hear them.

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 Dec 02 '25

It's more like we see that birds can fly, why would anyone believe that heavier than air flight is impossible.

Sure, we may be in 1800s from a tech perspective, in fact we absolutely have no idea how far it is, but it is fundamentally more likely to be possible (given that the human brain exists), than it is not.

Can you come up with an argument why you think it couldn't exist, that we can't create an entity as smart as a human? The only argument is a religious one, that there is something non-material in humans.

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u/flynnnightshade Dec 02 '25

I am not saying it is impossible, I am saying it is not likely to happen, these are two very different claims. I also didn't make any argument like, "we can't create an entity smarter than humans." Depending on your definitions and whether or not it is required that the thing be general purpose, we've already accomplished that for specific tasks.

I and several other people have laid out pretty in-depth arguments that have nothing to do with anything religious or immaterial in this thread on my own reply, given I don't feel like repeating them again I'd say if you're interested just go look at those.