[FRIAM] IT software dev / coding

[Steve Smith]

In the spirit of alien-thinking:

Norbert Weiner (1950) sed: /When we use humans as components in a 
machine—reducing them to repetitive, protocol-bound roles—we “chain a 
man to a thwart,” turning him into an inferior machine. /

Commodification and automation are dual /operations/ that reorganize the 
relationship between affordances and competencies across a 
(heterarchical) system (of systems).

In this case there are two (or more) systems superposed:  The /systemic 
metabolism/ attempting to extract work and redistribute resources and 
the /"distributed cognition/" system (cultural norms, government 
regulations, religious unctions) attempting to organize elements to 
effect that extraction/redistribution?

We are in (yet another) phase transition where formerly 
innovative/creative processes have become commodified to the point that 
they can be automated, which is part of a cascade of "yet more" 
commodification and automation.

A third (and most salient to well adjusted human biengs and other 
sentients perhaps?) is that of meaning whose objective is to justify and 
stabilize participation through stablized idnetity, dignity narrative, 
ethics, using ideas like purpose fairness, value and "shoulds".

To summarize:  Dave's "should" seems to superpose the logic of the 
/metabolism/ (should automate to optimize efficiency) and the /meaning/ 
realm with something like "everyone would be happier and more well 
adjusted" if they were to give over to this commodification.

On 4/20/26 9:16 am, glen wrote:
> There's a reading of Dave's OP not considered in this thread. He used 
> the word "should": "several hundred thousand developers/software 
> engineers should be replaced with AI and automated out of existence". 
> Of course, there is a usage of "should" that's more of a prediction 
> than a moral imperative. E.g. "We expect several hundred ...". But I 
> didn't read it that way. I read Kass' 5 questions ([mis]informed or 
> not) as an ethical stance. And Dave extended it to imply that those 
> developers *should* be obsoleted, according to Kass' ethic.
>
> Granted, many others are being obsoleted. But should they? Should they 
> according to Kass' ethic? Something else like the one I forwarded? 
> Does everyone have their own persnickety set of rules?
>
> A practical (though perhaps cynical or even nihilist) approach is to 
> [in|ab]ductively arrive at what *should* happen based on what *is* 
> happening, rather than stumbling into axioms of occult provenance. How 
> and when to map is-should is the fundamental question, much more 
> important than whichever individual rules might be adopted.
>
> On 4/20/26 7:53 AM, cody dooderson wrote:
>> I agree with Marcus. It is not just software developers that are 
>> getting replaced by AI. Book writers, musicians, lawyers and many 
>> other professions are seeing competition from AI.
>> This article about an AI author just showed up on Hacker news, 
>> https://theamericanscholar.org/who-is-blake-whiting/ 
>> <https://theamericanscholar.org/who-is-blake-whiting/> . 
>> Apparently the books get very good reviews, but the author doesn't 
>> actually exist.
>> I would speculate that almost any desk jockey profession is at risk.
>>
>> _ Cody Smith _
>> d00d3rs0n at gmail.com <mailto:d00d3rs0n at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 4:27 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com 
>> <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Dave writes:
>>
>>     < It seems to me, based on fifty years working in business IT 
>> development,
>>     that several hundred thousand developers/software engineers 
>> should be
>>     replaced with AI and automated out of existence. >
>>
>>     It's a growing list, and where it is weak, it mostly just a 
>> question of
>>     getting the token expenditure high enough while providing tools and
>>     grounding / embodiment.
>>
>>     For sysadmin work, the main obstacle is having (something like) 
>> hands to
>>     open boxes, power cycle, and that sort of thing.   The other day 
>> Claude Code
>>     set up a multi-architecture Kerberos server for me with NFSv4.
>>
>>     Traditional software development is mostly done IMO.
>>
>>     Also, building architecture is done.   Claude Opus is 
>> surprisingly skilled
>>     at building plans.   That will only accelerate IMO. 
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