Today, we're diving into a topic that's been buzzing in the developer community – the impact of AI on our jobs. When I chat with fellow developers about AI, I get a mixed bag of reactions. Some feel like we're on the “developer Titanic,” silently bracing for an iceberg. Others just shrug it off, downplaying AI as just another tool in the toolbox.But here's the thing – I don’t think there is a lot of talk about AI at work. It's like this unspoken rule. Maybe it's because we're trying to avoid a tough conversation, or maybe it's the anxiety of being replaced. We've seen big names like Google, Facebook, and even Duolingo start to lean on AI more, replacing some roles. Yet, for software devs, the shift hasn't been as drastic... yet.Now, about using tools like ChatGPT or Copilot – it's a bit of a hush-hush topic among devs. Everybody uses them, but often downplay their importance. They're called “handy little tools,” but we all know they sometimes churn out less-than-stellar code.Drawing a parallel with the retail industry, I wonder if developers are like cashiers in the era of self-checkout machines. While automation has not eliminated the cashier role, while there is still a need for experienced cashiers to monitor self-checkout, the role has been transformed. And places probably aren’t training many new cashiers. Similarly, AI might not replace developers entirely but could redefine their roles. The real challenge emerges in getting training and experience - how will new developers gain the necessary skills in this environment if junior devs are a thing of the past?From what I've seen, completely replacing developers with AI isn't going to be easy. There's a lot of nuance, and a lot of complex, human decisions that go into building and iterating software, especially legacy software. But, with AI getting better, teams might not need as many developers. What used to be a job for ten could soon be done by two or three. This means a tougher road for junior devs, as companies might start looking for fewer but more experienced people. Though, on the bright side, learning new skills has probably never been easier, thanks to tools like ChatGPT.But I could be completely wrong, and what I said will be flipped on its head in a year or two, tools like ChatGPT and Copilot become SO efficient, that there might not be a need to hire a senior developer because a junior or mid-level dev armed with AI can do the job just fine. Companies won’t be willing to pay the high salaries of senior and staff engineers and those jobs will become a thing of the past like phone operators.It’s hard to say what will happen in 2024, but it feels like a pivotal year for the future of software engineering.That’s it for today and we’ll see you next week. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Last week we talked about quantum computing, which got me thinking about quantum mechanics. Now, I am not a physicist and I don’t claim to have a deep understanding of physics and the math behind it, I’m just a coder who enjoys reading about paradoxical and interesting concepts. So, that being said, today let’s talk about the double slit experiment. The double slit experiment is a famous experiment that shows the dual nature of particles. What does that mean?Pretend there is a box and on one side of the box, we cut two rectangular slits or holes on top of each other. On the other side of the box on the inside, across from these slits, there is a sticky screen that can capture what comes through the slits.Now think about if we shot a bunch of tiny marbles through the slits. What we would expect is that the marbles on the screen would form two bands as some of the marbles go through the top slit while others go through the bottom slit.Now let’s say we have a gun that can shoot light particles, and we fire a bunch of them at the slits. What will the inside of the box look like? Because light is a wave, alternating light and dark bands from the top to bottom of the screen form; the whole screen would look like an Excel spreadsheet where each row would be light, dark, light dark, etc. This is because as the waves go through the slits, they spread out, think of it like a radio wave, some spots cancel each other out as the wave expands and you end up with an interference pattern, what looks like a stripe pattern up and down the screen.Now let’s go back and do this with the marbles, or particles. Here’s where things get a little strange. We don’t end up with two bands on the screen. We end up with the same stripe or interference pattern that we got with the light particles. Even if we shoot the marbles in one at a time, they will eventually arrange themselves in this stripe pattern, not the two-band pattern we would expect. This suggests that the particles go through both slits at the same time, like a wave. But how can this be? To find out why, we cut a tiny hole in the box so we could peek in and see what was happening during the experiment. This is where things get very strange. When we ran the experiment while observing, the particles, (our marbles), ended up on the screen in the two-band pattern, the pattern we would have originally expected. Essentially, when we watch them, the particles behave differently.If we close the spy hole and run the experiment again, we will see that the marbles will go back to the multi-striped interference pattern where they are behaving again like waves.The double slit experiment shows that particles like electrons and photons (light particles) have properties of both waves and particles, depending on how you measure or observe them. This dual nature is one of the core concepts in quantum mechanics, illustrating that at a fundamental level, nature doesn't always behave in ways that align with our everyday intuition.In conclusion, in classical physics, we understand particles and waves like we would a baseball versus a sound wave. But when we go down to the quantum level, this understanding of the world breaks down, and particles start to play by a different set of rules altogether. It wouldn’t even be correct to describe them as particles and waves at this level, and they seem to change based on how they are being measured. Nobody understands why this behavior occurs. It’s all very confusing and fascinating at the same time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Hey, welcome to episode 14 of Console.Warren. If you like what you hear, please consider subscribing or liking.Today let’s talk about quantum computing.A quantum computer would harness more power than we as humans can understand. If you watched 60 Minutes the other night, the most enlightening example was when they said an algorithm that would take all the supercomputers on Earth 15 million years to solve, could be solved by a quantum computer in minutes. And humans are about five to ten years away from quantum computing becoming a reality, which is a civilization-changing event.If there are advanced forms of life in the universe, it’s not a stretch to think they are probably harnessing quantum computing as well. The theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, says if aliens are real, and he says they most certainly are, they undoubtedly are using quantum computing to travel through black holes. He says this may explain why we can’t detect them with our current technology. If these advanced civilizations existed, they undoubtedly would also have the ability to create advanced simulated realities.Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford, is known for his Simulation Hypothesis. Essentially he says that one of the following has to be true: one, advanced human-level civilizations go extinct before they can create advanced simulations. Two, advanced civilizations exist but they have no interest in creating simulations, or three, advanced civilizations exist and they create advanced simulations. If the third is true, then the number of simulated realities would vastly outnumber actual realities, and chances are, we are one of the simulated realities. It’s an interesting thought experiment, especially if you’ve seen the movie, The Matrix. I had this idea years ago that the concept of an infinite universe might be more logically consistent within the framework of a simulation rather than in reality. If you’re representing an infinite universe in a computer simulation, you can continually expand the numerical representation of the volume of space with a number. Of course, while you would be limited by the amount of computational power, it’s possible that advanced quantum computers would make an infinite universe more feasible, especially if you don’t need to show the whole universe at once; sort of like a super advanced video game. To me, this makes more sense than the idea that we are living in an endless physical universe because how could something be never-ending in reality?If Bostrom’s third option is true and if civilizations had the technical ability to create highly complex simulations and simulated realities, they would do it. We do it right now, albeit on a much smaller, crude scale. But if quantum computers happen, imagine the number of simulations or simulated realities we’ll create.We could create complex situations to predict weather, wars, famine, and poverty. Foreign and monetary policy decisions could be run through simulation countries to predict their outcomes for the masses. We’d use them to predict market crashes, pandemics, and healthcare outcomes, and to study human behaviors and cure disease. Then we’d turn the dials a little bit and run them again. We’d run trillions of these.So let’s pretend Bostrom is right and we are one of these simulations created by an advanced civilization. Maybe we are in a simulation to study how disease spreads in societies. Maybe disease is relatively new to this advanced civilization or it has eradicated all disease from its society, but it still wants to understand and be able to predict any disease in the future. But what happens if the participants (us) inside the simulation start to understand quantum computing? What happens if the participants start to understand and harness the very thing that is powering the simulation? If you’re running the simulation, maybe you let it run for a little bit; maybe they’d let us create simulations and then those simulations eventually create simulations and you’d have a Russian doll effect, but eventually, they would shut it down because that wasn’t the point of the experiment. Or maybe we are in a simulation to see how long its participants take to discover technological supremacy, which would be quantum computing. Just like how we might run simulations to see how long it would take some rogue nation to acquire a nuclear weapon. Once they reach the goal of the simulation, then what?What happened in The Matrix when Morpheus and crew discovered the truth? To me, something is terrifying about scratching the surface of The Creator’s workbench. Understanding too much of the interworkings of nature feels like a bad idea.While we might not be in a simulation, and for all the good quantum computing will do, like cure diseases, humans need to stop and think before we unleash the power of the universe onto this troubled planet. One more thing to ponder. We know number two in Bostrom’s hypothesis isn’t true. What if number one, that advanced civilizations go extinct before they reach the ability to create simulations, is true? If we are on the verge of gaining access to the most powerful computers in the universe, what are the chances we will be the one civilization in the history of the universe to break this terrible streak and not go extinct before reaching technological supremacy? Does this mean we could be on the verge of extinction? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Today we talk about Fubar, and how he may or may not relate to foo, bar, and baz in coding tutorials and examples. Show notes: Animotion CSSDevTools CSS overviewClean Code is available on Spotify audiobooks (for free). I’m not sure if the audio version will be worth the listen, but it’s worth mentioning. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Today we talk about improving sprint retros, web components, and accessibility.Show notes: web componentsWDS accessibilityTweet of the weekResource of the weekI found this JS resource in my bookmarks from years ago. Follow me on Spotify This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Are you a “senior” junior developer? Today we talk about late bloomers, those of us who became software engineers later in life. I’ll cover seven tips on how to navigate this space.Tweet of the weekResource of the weekAstro tutorial This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Today we talk about a web component called browser-window, a new program to learn web performance, my portfolio, and why you should be meditating as a coder.Show notes: browser-windowLearn performanceportfolioCoding and MeditationDev resource of the weekRefactoring Guru has some great design pattern resources. Checkout https://refactoring.guru/design-patterns. Tweet of the week This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Show notes: Today we’ll talk about DHH leaving the cloud, building collaborative applications with PartyKit, the state of Progressive Web Apps, and the new and improved Mock Service Worker.Leaving the cloudPartyKitPWAsMSW 2.0 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

Today we talk about Project Wallace CSS insights, Google using passkeys by default now, a little bit about how I used ChatGPT images to avoid some busy work on my personal site, and Meta’s new AI translator. Show notes: Project WallacePasskeysChatGPT ImagesSeamlessM4TTweet of the week**Small correction: I meant to say “export” instead of “import” in the ChatGPT images section of the podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com

This week we talk about the pros and cons of imaginary AI friends, dubbing lips in video, CSS relative color for your design systems, and we take a quick peek at MDN’s new front end curriculum.Show notes: Imaginary AI FriendsLipdubCSS Relative ColorMDN's Curriculum Tech tweet of the weekNon tech item of the week: Michael C. Hall of Dexter has a band called Princess Goes and they’re pretty awesome. Check out their latest album, Come of Age. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit consolewarren.substack.com