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Comment by GTP | Hacker News Reader

Depends who you listen to. There are developers reporting significant gains from the use of AI, others saying that it doesn't really impact their work, and then there was some research saying that time savings due to the use of AI in developing software are only an illusion, because while developers were feeling more productive they were actually slower. I guess only time will tell who's right or if it is just a matter of using the tool in the right way.

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Probably depends how you're using it. I've been able to modify open-source software in languages I've never dreamed of learning, so for that, it's MUCH faster. Seems like a power tool, which, like a power saw, can do a lot very fast, which can bring construction or destruction.

I'm sure the same could be said about tractors when they were coming on the scene.

There was probably initial excitement about not having to manually break the earth, then stories spread about farmers ruining entire crops with one tractor, some farms begin touting 10x more efficiency by running multiple tractors at once, some farmers saying the maintenance burden of a tractor is not worth it compared to feeding/watering their mule, etc.

Fast forward and now gigantic remote controlled combines are dominating thousands of acres of land with the efficiency greater than 100 men with 100 early tractors.

Isn't this just a rhetorical trick where by referring to a particular technology of the past which exploded rapidly into dominance you make that path seem inevitable?

Probably some tech does achieve ubiquity and dominance and some does not and it's extremely difficult to say in advance which is which?

And, the end result being devastation of forests, ecosystems, animal life, fast track climate change etc.

Implying that efficient agriculture is destroying the planet is a wild take

Is it not?

I don't think tractors are destroying the planet, no

First, it's not destroying the planet, because the planet will chug along just fine, but it's making the planet inhabitable for us.

Dynamite is an efficiency tool, but in the wrong hand, it's used in ways that are not good.

And, greedy people using the efficiency tools without caring for the environment are devastating the planet's ecosystem, e.g. Amazon Rain forest

And in similar vein, our "Tech bros" are using technology for their satisfy their greed, which is resulting in loss of our privacy, democracy, and force fed of their agenda.

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