alt Hacker NewsHaving read the blog post and then the comments here, I'm rather astonished. Do we understand our craft so little that our only realistic option is to ban LLMs (so-called AI)? Has everyone forgotten we've been in a software crisis for almost sixty years?[0] Have we so internalized the sweat-of-the-brow we've accumulated for decades that it's now part of the identity of being a programmer, and the only reliable signal of whether a contribution is beneficial?
As far as I can tell, architecture, i.e. sound, precise definitions of exactly what a software artifact must do, is now critical. And with LLMs, it's now feasible to begin implementing such things, though many brownfield projects may be intrinsically unsound in ways that their creators are unaware of. In such a world, contributions simply require a modified proof that the software does what it must do, with perhaps additional claims that the maintainers provide.
I believe the development world has a few cultural issues that make it hard to focus on the issues at hand. As a group we tend to not see the forest for the trees which causes us to worry about microscopic details while ignoring overwhelmingly more important realities, like, say, economics, lack of proper communication, team alignment, power hierarchies, etc. Being male-dominated has also not helped us for as far as I can tell the field, like many others, is dominated by power play, ego and identity issues. Everyone is trying to prove to everyone else how clever they are instead of cooperating properly. I can count on one hand the programmers I met that are actually humble and not just humble bragging. I myself am guilty of this arrogance.
If we were at all competent we would have focused on the issues you mentioned. Architecture, intent, definitions, validation, actual proof that our work does what it needs to do. We didn't care because we were too busy showing ourselves and the people we look down on - the "suits" and other programmers using different styles/languages/frameworks - how superior we are and how clever we are that we can internalize and navigate Rust's syntax and C++'s foot-guns.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on your perspective, I think that strategy is dying. It might be best for us to keep the eyes on the ball. What does the system need to do and how do we validate that it in fact does what it says on the tin? All the rest is noise and that includes "code". If a million monkeys on typewriters get the job done within acceptable parameters so be it.