I’ve been trying to contribute to a Linux kernel subsystem recently. I can program in C, but that’s not really the barrier. Most patches are pretty tiny changes to the C code, I think. At the moment I’m finding that I don’t understand enough about the subsystem and hardware - that is the main obstacle to making meaningful changes. I’m not sure if there will eventually be AI agents that work on the Linux kernel without close supervision, but the “craft of coding” was probably never the most important thing.

Something I heard on a podcast recently re. AI is: do you think computer science, machine learning, embedded systems etc. will become more important to society in a world of advanced AI or less? I think it will become more important, but I suppose that doesn’t necessarily lead to more jobs.