Software engineers don't get to be Luddites about AI

Sean Goedecke argues that software engineers have no moral standing to reject AI-driven automation because their profession exists to automate other people's work. He traces software engineering’s history of displacing entire industries - video rental, travel agencies, typesetting, data entry and more - and recalls early cases like VisiCalc provoking anxiety about replacing bookkeepers. He contrasts modern engineers' Luddite sympathies with the original Luddites (textile workers) and with the mechanics who built power looms and were themselves later displaced; that historical irony undercuts claims that software work is a sacred craft immune from automation.

The piece asserts automation is, broadly, progress: it enabled modern medicine, higher food production and space exploration, even as technology has real downsides. Goedecke acknowledges contemporary techno-skepticism but insists software engineers have always chosen the side of technological advance - every commit and open-source project feeds that machine. He calls resistance now “undignified,” arguing that if engineers oppose automation they should vacate the field rather than deny AI’s capabilities; participation in automation’s disruptive effects means accepting responsibility when it transforms one’s own job.