Young programmers no longer know how to program. AI is now causing the same as the calculator caused half a century ago

Myron Aub was a boiler man from the egg head, but all that did not matter. I had discovered how to do something that humanity had forgotten: I knew how to multiply without the help of a computer. After demonstrating it, the members of the new Pentagon were amazed: someone was able to multiply with a paper and a ball!

All that imagined Isaac Asimov in his short novel ‘The feeling of power‘, originally published in February 1958. History, in just 3,700 words, is simply prodigious – I encourage you to read it – and raise a future in which human beings do not know how to perform mathematical operations and depend on computers for computers all. When AUB performs reverse engineering of this calculation process, it creates an extraordinary situation. One that leads to an equally surprising conclusion … and sadly predictable.

I read that story about 30 years ago and then I found it fascinating – I am an absolute fan of the ‘Foundation’ saga of Asimov, but I hated the Apple TV+ series for betraying that legacy. The prolific author transmitted a clear message: perhaps it is not so good idea to depend too much on the machines. Or maybe yes?

The programmers who did not know how to program

It is what is certainly happening in the world of programming, which is undoubtedly the segment most affected by the arrival of artificial intelligence. The AI ​​models have proven to be valuable attendees when programming, and just six months after the chatgpt launch nine out of ten professionals used AI to program.

The de facto models have become increasingly capable in this type of task, and the popularity of Tools as cursor has shown that The conquest of “effortless programming” Tab-Tab-Tab is increasingly clear. Even those who did not know how to program or knew, but not in certain programming languages, they are now capable of creating surprising applications. AI is not perfect, of coursebut one thing is clear: it is getting better.

That, of course, raises a risk: let’s forget how to program. It is just what a developer named Namanyay Goel denounces, which In his blog he explained How “New Junior developers are not able to program.”

According to their experience, the new generation of programmers use chatgpt or co -pilot or Claude at all hours. That, he says, allows them to deliver more code than ever, but according to this developer, These young programmers do not know why that code works or if there would be another way better to do it. “We are sacrificing deep understanding (of the code) by fast patches, and although that makes us feel good now, we will pay later.”

Goel highlighted how not much places like Stack Overflow were a much better source of information for programmers. They asked things, but when they got answers they used to learn why those answers were valid. That knowledge was there for free, and also in many cases veteran developers and experienced people became involuntary teachers for new generations.

“The AI ​​gives you answers, but the knowledge you acquire is superficial. With Stackoverflow, you had to read multiple expert discussions to get a complete vision. It was slower, but you ended up understanding not only what worked, but why it worked.”

Of course, not everyone thinks the same and a commentator in Slashdot He pointed out How “Stackoverflow has been a source of terrible programming tips and an overdependence of copying and hitting for much longer.”

However, Essste developer believes that not yet everything is lost. AI can help you, without a doubt, but you can also continue learning with it. “When you give you an answer,” he advised, “Ask him for her. Ask why (he has given that solution). “He also recommends debating that code with your team of developers to discuss and be able to get new ideas, or perhaps do so with developers who go to platforms such as Reddit, Discord or Mastodon.

The calculator teaches us the future

The reflection of that developer is undoubtedly striking, but for many it is a useless debate. In Slashdot a user named Zak3056 He affirmed Take two decades interviewing Júnior developers. “A surprising percentage of them did not understand basic concepts (…). AI has nothing to do with this. It is the state in which education is, many schools are creating graduates that simply do not understand the field they have chosen “

Other comments coincided with him, and the situation reminds other industrial and technological revolutions in which a profession or discipline have ended up being completely conquered by machines. We continue learning to perform mathematical operations, but after school there are not many people who do operations at hand: It is much faster to use the calculator.

The calculators may cause some workers who performed that task to be displaced at the beginning, but their impact in the long run has been greatly positive.

To begin with, there are still mathematicians, but they are dedicated to much more complex problems than the machines are not yet able to solve – of the moment either – and the calculators made them even more valuable: they could focus on those problems, and Not in the calculations that could also be wrong because we assume it, the margin of human error is there.

In addition, the calculators productivity and efficiency improved significantlysaving all kinds of professionals those most repetitive tasks to focus on others that other non -substitutable capacities (at least, for the moment) by the machines.

Will something like this happen with AI and programming? It is very likely. AI has already proven to be valuable help for programmersand it is easy to think that programmers evolve to become architects and software engineers, delegating most programming tasks to the IAS when it is demonstrated that in effect that code works optimally.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, declared in February 2024 that At this point no one should learn to programbecause AI will do it for us. Others like Mark Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, coincides with that appreciationand in the industry several movements are being seen in that direction. It is likely that at some point know how to program not contribute added value if AI can do so well (or perhaps better) than human beings. And then, as in so many other cases, we will have to adapt.

And perhaps then, in many years, An old man named Myron Aubshort and bald, surprise the world and reveal that you have learned to program without the help of machines.

Boom.

Image | Mohammad Rahmani

In Xataka | There are programmers who use tabulators and programmers who use spaces. And then there is Linus Torvalds