The problem imo is the slow deterioration of institutional knowledge that offloading the mental task of wisdom gathering to AI is causing.
One interesting comparison is to the history of manufacturing. West/America decided one day that manufacturing would be cheaper to outsource and better (short term) profit was to be made by outsourcing it all to China. The institutional expertise started to deteriorate, to the point that America simply didn't even have the capacity, or expertise anymore to produce stuff (such as grill brush [1])
I feel like you could take all the handwavy comment that are made today to dismiss this caution, and find equal dismissal back then when companies were actively outsourcing the manufacturing.
"I'm coding 10x faster"
"look at the output velocity per employee"
"we are producing much more (in China)"
"look at profit / number of (manufacturing) employers"
Seems ok if you're American / Chinese but I'm struggling to understand how the rest can be OK with allowing institutional knowledge to deteriorate while having an active dependency to the former two. We already see this with the tech dependency towards USA and manufacturing competition from China.
> West/America decided one day that manufacturing would be cheaper to outsource and better (short term) profit was to be made by outsourcing it all to China.
Bogus nonsense.
1. Manufacturing output in West/America is higher than it ever was in history.
2. What has reduced over time is the number of people employed in manufacturing, not manufacturing output. And that's an effect of automation, same as it happened over centuries in agriculture.
3. West/America did not decide anything, the realities of capitalism did.
You're either a capitalist and embrace efficiency of producing where it makes sense (for many different reasons) or you're fine with inefficient third-tier industries.
The tax payer may help a handful of sectors that would otherwise die survive if they are truly critical for national security, but just a handful, not all of them.
NalNezumi · · focus · HN ↗
One interesting comparison is to the history of manufacturing. West/America decided one day that manufacturing would be cheaper to outsource and better (short term) profit was to be made by outsourcing it all to China. The institutional expertise started to deteriorate, to the point that America simply didn't even have the capacity, or expertise anymore to produce stuff (such as grill brush [1])
I feel like you could take all the handwavy comment that are made today to dismiss this caution, and find equal dismissal back then when companies were actively outsourcing the manufacturing.
"I'm coding 10x faster" "look at the output velocity per employee"
"we are producing much more (in China)" "look at profit / number of (manufacturing) employers"
Seems ok if you're American / Chinese but I'm struggling to understand how the rest can be OK with allowing institutional knowledge to deteriorate while having an active dependency to the former two. We already see this with the tech dependency towards USA and manufacturing competition from China.
[1] <a href="https://youtu.be/3ZTGwcHQfLY" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/3ZTGwcHQfLY
epolanski · · focus · HN ↗
Bogus nonsense.
1. Manufacturing output in West/America is higher than it ever was in history.
2. What has reduced over time is the number of people employed in manufacturing, not manufacturing output. And that's an effect of automation, same as it happened over centuries in agriculture.
3. West/America did not decide anything, the realities of capitalism did.
You're either a capitalist and embrace efficiency of producing where it makes sense (for many different reasons) or you're fine with inefficient third-tier industries.
The tax payer may help a handful of sectors that would otherwise die survive if they are truly critical for national security, but just a handful, not all of them.