Software engineer asks: why are we so eager to automate away each other's jobs?
Out-Live-In-Death · reddit · 2026-10-20
A software engineer's long Reddit essay questions the AI race: we celebrate making one person as productive as ten without asking what happens to the other nine, and productivity gains keep coming with more pressure rather than more leisure.
He highlights the contradictions — everyone is told to adapt or be left behind, yet the jobs may vanish anyway; technology doesn't decide who benefits, so a world of abundance can still leave people unable to afford housing and healthcare.
He isn't against innovation, but asks: what's the point of eliminating the need for human labor if people still depend on selling labor to survive?
Related event: Engineers question why AI's automation zeal now hits their own jobs(2 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Inside OpenAI's all-hands: Sam Altman walks through 3 plans to pace AI development — steph_palazzolo · 2026-10-20
- Language Modeling Is Agents in the Limit: voooooogel's Intuition Clash Sparks Debate — voooooogel · 2026-10-20
- The artificial ego and the absent id: why AI moral status hinges on deliberately built-in stakes — usernamedregs · 2026-10-20
- Reddit essay: why demanding proof of AI consciousness before moral consideration is a double standard — Afflictionxx · 2026-10-20
- Economist Paul Novosad: AI-written text deserves a steep attention discount, often near 100% — paulnovosad · 2026-10-20
- When AI Takes 80% of Routine Tasks, Problem-Definition and Risk-Taking Decide Your Worth — AryHHAry · 2026-10-20