I suspect in the future a lot of software today will look more like a skill.
Of course, you don't want a skill running a nuclear reactor.
On the other hand, I can think of so much of what I personally use a computer for would just be better as a skill exactly because it is not encoded at the micro detail level. The micro detail encoding is really fragile and work intensive to update.
This is especially true at my non-technical workplace. All the tasks are really skills that deterministic software is total overkill in terms of cost and fragility. Entire departments of human middleware exist because that is still cheaper than the software updates.
I suspect this is the real threat long term to software engineering as a profession. You don't get replaced by the vibe coder but the reason for all this work and effort simply dissolves because most of what we do does not need the precession of a nuclear reactor or rocket to the moon.
It is not a capitalist conspiracy that there is no portable vinyl turn table that you carry around in a back pack so you can do rucking workouts and listen to vinyl at the same time either.
It is just a stupid idea.
I can picture myself listening to LL Cool J on a walkman in the 80s. I am not old enough for 8 tracks but I would put cassettes as the worst music media of my lifetime.
Maybe if you are into Japanese noise music there would be some kind of aesthetics of a cassette that would be interesting but it is mostly a stupid idea too in 2026.
I have spent about 6 hours with it now and it is absurd to say it worse than 4.8. It is wonderful.
To me, there is this strange critique that seems to always happen now with a new model. Like shitting on the model for entertainment purposes seems more interesting to many than actually using the model.
It reminds me of looking up a new music album on youtube that has very few views with a review above it by The Needle Drop shitting on the album will have a few hundred thousands views.
I would rather just listen to the album and judge for myself.
Very interesting. I mostly interact through prompts too but haven't changed the effort that much. I just assumed higher was better at the trade off of tokens so I have largely left it at the default.
Is there really that much money in bleeding edge scientific research though?
This is what terrifies me about this whole ordeal economically. Maybe we get AGI and it is not worth anything close to what we thought it was for those who have a bet on it.
I think of what was the direct, economic value in the betting sense of quantum mechanics or relativity? Huge value at the systems level of society but as you scale down towards the individual the value is more and more dispersed to the point I would think any pool of bets would have all not paid off.
You can't monopolize and commoditize relativity.
I almost think there is a kind of dutch book against the AI equity holder because even in the best case scenario the bet doesn't pay off anything close to what is expected for an individual bet.
Water Lilies are enormous paintings. They are breathtaking in person because of their scale. Monet wouldn't be Monet if he had only produced images on a screen.
Art is good or it is shit, based on personal taste. Just like food, no one can tell me what food tastes good or tastes bad.
AI Art seems to produce strong emotions in people who don't go to art galleries. I love modern art, I am a huge art snob but if you want to see slop, go to any modern art gallery. Personally, I would say for my taste, at least 70% of all art at any gallery is basically shit.
Like food also, the presentation matters. To believe there is no possible way to print out a 6 foot tall by 10 foot long AI generated image that would look awesome hanging in a gallery is stupid.
I have moved on from Fable anyway so just going to view this next 6 weeks as I have a massive amount of Opus 5 to use.
I had a hard time finding anything that would let Fable express its increased intelligence. The few conversations I had this afternoon with Opus 5 were pretty impressed.
If Opus stays one click back from the frontier model, I will remain a happy customer.
Of course, you don't want a skill running a nuclear reactor.
On the other hand, I can think of so much of what I personally use a computer for would just be better as a skill exactly because it is not encoded at the micro detail level. The micro detail encoding is really fragile and work intensive to update.
This is especially true at my non-technical workplace. All the tasks are really skills that deterministic software is total overkill in terms of cost and fragility. Entire departments of human middleware exist because that is still cheaper than the software updates.
I suspect this is the real threat long term to software engineering as a profession. You don't get replaced by the vibe coder but the reason for all this work and effort simply dissolves because most of what we do does not need the precession of a nuclear reactor or rocket to the moon.