Coders Automating Their Own Job

In Cybernetics there is a formal measure called Variety which is something like a limit or measure of complexity of a system. Programming can be considered the art of extracting the low-variety parts of a process into automation, leaving the high-variety parts to the (high-variety) humans. This process itself is low-variety. Therefore, from first principles, programming is automatable. Our programming environments will eventually look like automatic systems that we instruct with our intentions, and then they consult us as oracles to determine the high-variety parts of the necessary process, having automatically computed the low-variety parts.

In fact, this is already happening as fast as people can accept it. The limiting factor is not in the machines (they are already superbly fast) but in the psychology of the people involved. Most of the research and much of the technology already exists and is in many cases decades old. (Cf. "The Mother of All Demos" and Prolog.)

As time goes on, given the exponential nature of the meta-process, it will feel like a step function for many of us: one day relevant and employable, then the next day replaced by a machine and unemployable, and unable to learn the next thing fast enough to beat the masses of your peers competing against you in the same boat.

I realized all this years ago, and have been asking peers and coworkers, "If you could write a program that could replace yourself, would you?" However, to date, no one has taken the question seriously.

I find this article, appearing in a non-geek publication, to very heart-warming. Maybe people are finally catching on?

Anyhow, this is why e.g. Universal Basic Income is important: You're going to need it sooner rather than later.

Unless there is some essential economic activity that humans can perform that machines can't we are all on the "discard pile" of history.

I actually think we'll just mellow out and enter a Golden Age, but again, only as fast as we can accept it. Certainly the Universe is willing for us to live in peace and harmony, it's up to us to choose to, or not.

Careful, if it gets out that you wrote the code to automate your job as a coder while actually at your job, your company most likely owns that IP.

You've just described the purpose of the entire software industry. Did it really not occur to you that writing systems to automate tasks would displace anyone doing those tasks manually?

Well, no shit. That is what the job of a programmer is - to keep automating things.

There are an INFINITE number of useful things we need to do as a society, so we shouldn't be upset if we automate one of them away. Move on to the next.

Of course, programmers should make sure they negotiate strongly to get compensated fairly for the work. I think it is a bit short sighted, however, to worry that you will end up like the guy who automated his job and was then fired and replaced by a lower skilled guy - who cares, you SHOULD move on at that point if the company doesn't want you to automate something else. There are plenty of companies that will hire you, and you can use the example of the previous company to show you can do it. This time, negotiate better compensation.