The Programmers of the Future

Why programmers are to become the new artists in a Post AI world

The modern paradigm of programmers is destined to fall. Large autonomous systems, led by elite engineers, will replace today's corporate developers. Today's software jobs stifle intellect and creativity. The top software companies do not have worthy aims to anyone but brainless consumers and capitalists with weak values. These problems are carving a distinct new path for future programmers.

The software engineer has become a cultural nobility symbol in recent years. Influencers across the world have cropped up to sell this dream to everyone with a computer. Computer science programs are overrun with people who ultimately don't enter the industry. There are more computer science graduates than there are programming jobs available. Does the world really need another corporate code monkey burdened with $50,000 in debt who will face unemployment in 10 years?

Industry engineers continue to downplay the impact that the recent developments in AGI will have on the field. Currently, tech culture is still in its child-like, innocent phase. Corporate devs are blinded by their passion for their careers, which is understandable. You will not hear the truth from anyone working in the field unless they are particularly realistic, so the "experts" here are not a reliable voice of reason in a time like this.

Any time an “outsider” questions the soundness of the future industry, they are considered preachers of doom and gloom. It is the outsiders, however, who are able to lay judgment without emotional attachment to the field. It is outsiders who are more capable of an objective view, rather than the corporate fish from inside the tech-bowl. Perhaps the field is blinded by its own techno-optimism that has been shoved down our throats for the past decade through the “learn to code” movement. 

Of course, this could just be a pessimistic viewpoint that winds up to be false, and AI could possibly lead to the further growth of the overall economy. It is difficult to predict what may ultimately happen, so what does history tell us?

Historically, automation has led to a dip followed by a surge in the job market. This is the main empirical pillar on which the techno-optimist stands. It doesn't take into account the fact that AGI is only in its infancy. Moreover, past automation innovations were not able to mimic a general human-like intelligence. AGI cannot be treated exactly like past innovations. Consider all the tasks that could be automated by a human-like intelligence that is much cheaper, less error-prone, and capable of working 24/7. 

In a future economy where intellectual labor is cheap and abundant, jobs that are focused on solving logical problems will primarily be done by computers. Only a miniscule portion of today's workforce contributes anything truly groundbreaking. Therefore, only the absolute peaks of human intelligence will be economically useful instruments for logical problem-solving. There's no need for AI to surpass the rare scientific and creative geniuses in order to displace most workers.

Programming jobs are highly exposed to this potential displacement, especially those focused on solving logic problems. Programmers solve logic problems for a living, so this is an issue that they will come to face. Although large systems require a high level of creativity to integrate each component seamlessly, each component itself can be broken down into relatively simple collections of logic statements. The vast majority of component logic a programmer writes has already been written before in a slightly different form, and it is not novel in this regard. Directing an entire project is where the creative threshold is higher, especially novel projects. Developers with this skill will be more resilient amidst layoffs. 

The developers of the future can see the writing on the wall. Raw coding skills and even software fundamentals will increasingly be the strength of LLMs, not humans. Considering that the domain of logic is destined to become the natural strength of computer systems, humans will be forced to pivot. This is not to say that programmers should not care about logic, rather, they should not be defined by it. The programmers of the future will lean toward being technically advanced artists, not pure logicians.

A great programmer is more than a mere logician, and for this reason only there is hope for the programmers of the future. The best developers today are both artists and language-based logicians. Those who embody only logic and not art will die out after the further advancement of AGI. This is a different breed of developer than most corporate developers today, therefore a new selection pressure has presented itself, the artistic pressure.

Ambitious artistic endeavors always conflict with corporate environments, which tend to stifle true creativity. Corporations are not seeking artists, but instruments. Artistic aims will be in permanent conflict with corporate interests. Even Google, a company known for cultivating creative projects, has failed to produce good software in years. Gemini, a racist language model, is a prime example of software which has suppressed creativity and taste in favor of corporate interests. Claude embodies moral ugliness as well, rendering it useless for many tasks. This artistic perversion exists in every popular piece of software today, and it does not sit well with the programmers of the future.

This is not a call to entrepreneurship, as many have advocated for in the space. Providing value with software is incredibly important, but in a world where values are upside down, making software for the masses is often the wrong approach. The self-serving profit motive is both the source and downfall of modern technology. The superior software of the future will transcend purely selfish motives. It will provide value, rather than extract it. The developers of the future are abundant creatures who are not seeking to only extract wealth and time from the masses, but to inspire ever-greater human achievement. This software will not suppress human achievement through addictive algorithms, rather it will facilitate it. 

Although the economic future of programmers is in question, the economic value of most people is in question.. In this light, it's not worth worrying about the economic value of programming in the future, rather, the artistic value. Software is a new medium for art, and the reason most modern software is purely hedonistic is because corporations are not capable of creating art. They are profit generating organisms that are generally not concerned with higher values. Only individuals can create good art. It follows that the best software in the future will be created by individuals, or very small groups, not corporations. 

In this future world, there will be elite corporate developers, and independent artists. If you have not noticed, this trend is already happening today. There are a huge swath of programmers on the internet who don't work in the industry. These programmers are largely hobbyists, dreamers (people who want to break in) or freelancers. Considering that automation will replace most of the lower echelons of corporate developers, this trend will magnify until the techno-optimism bubble bursts. The developers who were only ever in it for the money will fade away, and we will be left with the artists and the corporate elite.

The passionate developers who are displaced or have no interest in working a software job will continue building their own projects with the ever-stronger tools at their disposal. Similar to musicians and artists, the vast majority of them will be obscure. However, this is not to say that the art or software they create is without purpose. This points to a bigger ideological shift where software is treated like an artform, rather than a tool for generating wealth. The software of tomorrow should be judged on metrics other than just user count and profitability, such as its ability to promote human flourishing.

Rather than being on the brink of destruction, we stand at the forefront of either stagnation or enlightenment. The brutal economic fallout that may come will merely spur this new age. Many will fall into a hedonistic trap in a life without traditional work, where others will pursue higher aims that animate both themselves and their cultures. The rest will find meaningful work in social spheres such as teaching, therapy or healthcare. The inevitable result will cause mediocre people to forgo achievement, while others will become vastly fertile, if not with children, then with ideas, art, music, software and new values for a delicate age with an entirely unique set of historical problems.

There will be those who succumb to the coming societal shift, and those who overcome it. Every movement in both nature and human societies creates new selection pressures, and an organism can either sink or swim. Rather than being afraid of this coming reality, I say we confront it head on. A question should often be asked of preachers of AI doom and gloom today, as to whether they are sick. I suspect this is the case.. However, being aware of madness and trampling over it is not a product of sickness. It's a product of strength.

The programmers of the future will dance through the cultural and technological chaos, producing new symbols, new mediums, and new paradigms. Human society must go through an enormous shift to give rise to stronger values, a better type of programmer, and ultimately a higher type of human. Those who have much to give will remain overflowing, no matter the environmental conditions. The benevolent creatures among us will continue painting new software, culture, and solutions onto the societal canvas. The artistic programmers of the future recognize that not every problem requires code; writing code was a means, not an end. To any true artist, it was never about the money, but rather the ability to engage with the world, expressing passionately what one sees as the truth. These are the programmers of the future!