How did we get here? Why am I, a lifelong tech enthusiast, on a tech enthusiast board championing someone for resisting technology? I’ve been on HN for years but it’s starting to feel absurd ever since I’ve been out of sync with the whole AI thing. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.
Person A: I'm a tech enthusiast! I have the latest smartphone, smartwatch, smart car, smart TV, smart home... all networked together and automated to make my daily life easier.
Person B: I work in tech. The last piece of tech I bought is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun nearby in case it starts acting funny.
Once you understand how the sausage is made and what the incentives are, you become very suspicious of every hot new tech integration that comes along.
But humans just don't write commercial software anymore. Don't expect to keep doing that for a living.
* Seriously, do not shoot a toner cartridge or any object containing one with a projectile weapon; silicosis is no one’s friend and while you’d probably be fine with a 100 respirator, your lungs would still really prefer you didn’t even just once do that. (doi:10.1002/ajim.23147)
It's the fresher ones, with less experience, that are more excited by stuff like "smart appliances" and the latest gadgets and trends. Or manager types nominally "in tech", but who haven't been in the trenches since forever. People who "who know the most about tech" only superficially, in that the know the most about the latest slop and trends.
The cynicism is borne out of experience.
Like...a smart TV so you don't need a second device to play your streaming services? I kinda understand, though I think it's a silly move. If my Fire TV stick gets deprecated, I can buy a new one for under $50. If my TV itself gets deprecated, I'm spending $1500+ for a new one. But like...the number of people who have their heads in the sand when it comes to pervasive ads being injected by their TV is appalling.
But why does anybody need a smart washer (either clothes or dishes)? I need to be physically there to load it. There's literally nothing to be gained by having an app. Sure, sometimes I want a delayed start for whatever reason, but literally every washer already has that function without an app.
I don't even see the purpose of WiFi-connected light bulbs. The only time I'm turning a light on or off is when I'm entering or leaving the room, in which case I'm passing by the light switch anyways.
The dishwashing machine being able to notify you ahead of time that you're low (but not already out) of softening salt or rinse aid liquid is also convenient - but indeed also solvable with display on the machine itself.
But the automation like lights, or blinds/shutters... Being able to open/close shutters from your bed (or automatically in the morning as part of waking you up), or turn on/off lights based on motion/presence detection - is actually useful.
Of course you shouldn't need Internet to operate it. And many people use Home Assistant exactly because they don't want their "smart devices" to talk to the cloud.
I do say that I very much like our smart clothes washer's app and find it useful. It sends me a notification when the washing cycle is complete so that I know it is time to move it to the dryer, enabling a more efficient wash day, and less likelihood of forgetting a load in the washer and having it mildew.
I also do like my wifi connected light switches quite a lot. I frequently find myself wanting to dim the lights after we have already sat down to watch a movie or something. I don't want to kick the cat off my lap just to adjust the lighting. And I use it every night when going to bed, as the light switch is on the opposite side of the room, and our bedroom is completely pitch black with the lights out due to my war on LED indicators. We also travel frequently and have a preprogrammed "away" lighting schedule to make the house look occupied. Smart lighting is a super useful upgrade.
even tech enthusiasts can see that a major chunk of the populace is increasingly falling on the "to" side, so championing resistance makes a lot of sense.
AI has been multiplying the wrong things (for the common people) at an amazing rate, while the good things it multiplies have been few, arguable, and lagging behind.
Usually to be enthusiastic about new tech, it needs to be the reverse. New tech that multiplies the "good things" first while the wrong things catch up later (see Internet, cars, commercial aviation, smartphones).
Sure, fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" (i.e. writing code). But eventually the bad things will catch up with us too.
AI is no different. People like to think they have some special new insight as to why "it's bad this time!" but the average person has always reacted to change with FUD.
Dunno about that. I work in writing infrastructure code (telco space), and while we do use Claude Code (Optus 4.8/Fable 5/etc) there still needs to be extremely thorough review and a close watch kept on its output.
AI generated code that's not carefully managed is not suitable for really important things. At least, not the stuff I've seen it generate so far both for my colleagues and myself.
Very few people appear happy to receive generated content. It is fun to make however.
We as a society will probably figure this out(and look back fondly on the days of real handcrafted artisanal writing) but for now there is a lot of tension between the two sides.
I know I loose all interest in a thing when I learn it is generated.