Over the last while, I, like many others, have been pondering what separates humans from AI. What is it that we possess that LLMs do not? Is it the ability to think? Is it intelligence? Is it a soul? What is our place in a world where AI is becoming increasingly better at mimicking or in some ways even surpassing and replacing us? If the world is to end at the hands of AI as some have been prophesising, then who are we to stop it, and why?

The answer I’ve come to is not satisfying, not prestigious, not honourable, and certainly not “good”.

Greed.

It is our insatiable desire to conjure the next thought, tread the next step, experience the next second, and take the next breath to continue living that keeps us rooted in this world. No matter the hardships we face, we always conclude that, with time, we will resolve any problem that comes our way to eventually take that next breath.

This doesn’t always pan out for some, but everyone goes through their own personal hardships nevertheless. Everyone - from world leaders to politicians, to billionaires, to CEOs, to workers, to farmers, to the employed and the unemployed, to the young and the old, and yes, to you and to me. I may never understand the hardships a billionaire faces but I am certain that they exist. Whether it is that they are bound by a never-ending cycle of debt, or have a little demon lurking in the corner of their mind, they, too, are just trying to survive.

But this isn’t about the billionaires. This is about software development.

Software developers are also just trying to survive. For some, that means money. For others, it means basking in the creative process. The journey itself - from “hello” to “world” - no matter how repetitive, contributes to the developers’ psychological survival. We don’t want that taken from us, because without it, it means certain death. We can absolutely make an LLM throw up “hello world” in any incantation we desire, but for us… the journey is over.

Greed.

In recent times I’ve noticed a disturbing trend of software developers increasingly forcing their own greed upon others. That because I’ve gone through a particular journey then you must also experience it with me. But if our individual drives for survivability do not intersect through that particular journey, then we have only created a rift amongst ourselves. And if that rift leads to friction, hostility, distrust, dismissal, and eventually isolation, then have we not only hindered our own survivability?

Is the world where we survive the one in which we stand alone, or is it the one in which we cooperate to solve common problems for the benefit of everybody despite our diverging journeys? If it’s the latter, then we must be mindful of how we treat those across the aisle - the human behind the bow, and now… the human conducting the orchestra.