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My Parent doesn't want me doing CS, or CE, because they feel the job market will disappear come 7 years. (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/cs_career_questions@programming.dev
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Basically Title.
I love CS, I love designing systems, programming, some cyber and math.
The problem is, I am due to admit into CS this year (4 year program). My Parent's will be funding a majority of it (~2 years, + RESP). And one of my parents, thinks CS won't have many jobs come 7 years?
Why? Because AI will take them all (or is more likely to take them all). That AI is expanding at a rapid pace, and they will slowly but surely take the hardware designing jobs, the programming jobs, and pretty much all the jobs except the administration ones. I have a poor time putting into words what I would like to do in the future (cause I love lots of things related to CS) but I say thing a bit on the technical side, and this parent says that if I cant explain it to them than I don't understand it and that they understand (more to me) what will happen to the market due to their age

I am not saying they're wrong to any of this by the way, I'm just looking for advice on if they're right, and if not, why?

I don't think I'll ever give up doing CS because its something I love with all my heart.
But if I'm not able to convince them, they want me to take a gap and get a different degree (in a less likely to be taken job).
I might be rambling here, but I am genuinely soooo lost.

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[–] 14 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Software dev with over 17 years experience here, who also uses AI a lot in his job.

Why? Because AI will take them all (or is more likely to take them all).

People are pretty stupid

How the hell would AI be able to take over... without people with CS skills to... make the... AI?

Its literally like claiming that engineers jobs will be taken over by robots... Who is going to make and design the robots...?

AI isnt going to take over our jobs, AI is a tool we use to do our jobs better/faster.

Its akin to what happened with carriage drivers when the automobile was invented. Horses lost their jobs, for sure, but cab drivers now vastly outnumber how many horse carriages we used to have.

When the cost and time to do a job goes down, demand goes up exponentially because budgets follow a curve, down to a breaking point but a breaking point we arent anywhere remotely close to.

When you halve the cost of your product, you MORE than double your demand because as price goes down, the buyers who can afford you go up EXPONENTIALLY.

So don't worry about it, but you DO need to extremely critically be very aware of and be ready to learn how to use AI.

Also, a Comp Sci degree is a theoretical math degree focused on the theory of programming. Its not recommended for a practical path in life if you want to be actually making software.

Computer Sciences: Publishing papers on math theory with respect to AI, Encryption, Math, Game Theory, Set Theory, stuff like that

Computer Engineering: Designing and building hardware, and creating firmware for it. ESp32s and Arduinos go BRRRRRR. Get read to solder stuff.

Software Engineering: I wanna make programs that do stuff for people, but I demand a higher salary and in turn am eligible for more advanced work where peoples lives and safety might be at stake. However, I have to spend an extra 40 to 50 grand to get this title.

Software Developer: I wanna make programs too, but Im not gonna spend 40 grand on a fancy ring I can show off at parties and I cant call myself an "engineer" or I might get in trouble, but unless the stuff Im working on involves human lives/safety or mission critical things like bank software, no one gives a shit. You'll make less money but also have a waaay eaiser time finding work

Make sure you know which one you want and pick accordingly.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    How the hell would AI be able to take over... without people with CS skills to... make the... AI?

    What happens to those people once the AI is finished?

    AI isnt going to take over our jobs, AI is a tool we use to do our jobs better/faster

    Right, so one person can handle the workload of what 3 people (for example) used to do. Therefore AI just took those other two people's jobs.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    What happens to those people once the AI is finished?

    Same thing that will happen whenever we finish the automobile.

    Yet, manufacturers keep making new and various automobiles every single year so... hope you see where Im going with that.

    Right, so one person can handle the workload of what 3 people (for example) used to do. Therefore AI just took those other two people’s jobs.

    Read the rest of my post before hitting the reply button, as I explicitly called this out and addressed it.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    The common thread in all these doomer conspiracies is human adaptability. Slippery slope arguments assume that once a technology introduces a specific risk, society lacks the agency to create counter-measures, new norms, or alternative uses for that technology. Instead, history shows that when a "slope" appears, regulation steps in, technology evolves to solve the problem, or the culture shifts to reinterpret the tool.

    In almost every case, the feared "bottom" of the slope was never reached because humans constantly built ramps or bridges along the way.

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