PyotrVerkhovensky
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User ID: 2154
PyotrVerkhovensky
1d ago
The modern white-collar workplace has been understood by some as an exemplar of the "longhouse": an increasingly feminized environment where "alignment" and "consensus" matter more than "action" and "execution".
In the age of AI, I posit three phases in the evolution of the modern workplace, the labor market, and (as a result) society more broadly.
Phase 1: increased ossification and feminization. This will occur because the (mostly male) "doers" on which the company relies are likely the first to be automated. There may still need to be a handful of rockstar performers, but the age of AI will, at least initially, make all intellectual endeavors a winner-takes-all market. With the actual work mostly automated, the remaining management is free to spend even more time doing longhouse things.
Phase 2: the return of the laborer. There will be a simultaneous increase in blue-collar jobs (with a glut in software, demand will increase for physical/real-world goods) and an increase in blue-collar labor, occupied primarily by men. White-collar labor becomes increasingly rare. The layers of middle management are no longer required, and if capabilities continue on trend it won't be long before the only thing preventing some white-collar industries from full automation will be slow capability diffusion. In this step, society will become more masculine. It will appear that a "retvrn" to traditional gender roles is underway. Men will again perform the large share of labor.
Phase 3: automation. Robotics and automated factories to create the robots become a reality. Labor demand sharply declines. Depending on how society handles this transition it could be a time of broad prosperity and leisure, or it could be a time of strife and mass inequality. But either way, the longhouse will come back with a vengeance. In a society where labor and intellect are no longer required, the only thing that will matter is status games and relative positioning. This is a game that the feminine temperament is better suited for. The boot that stomps forever on our faces will be high-healed.
As a male in an intellectual role, none of these three phases will be kind to me.
PyotrVerkhovensky
1d ago
Is RSI well defined? I think a lot of confusion in this sub-thread is caused by one side saying that RSI is a model modifying its own weights (which is not happening yet in a way that is meaningful), and the other side saying RSI is researchers using AI to accelerate AI R&D (which is...obviously true. The vast majority of code written at Anthropic and OpenAI is AI generated)
PyotrVerkhovensky
1d ago
I'm creating new apps every couple days from a small local model. The time from idea to implementation is at least an order of magnitude shorter than it was, and the code is more consistent and better documented. It is not (only) hype, it is reality.
Yes, but how many such men will we need? That was my point about winner-takes-all markets.
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