Leon on Everything

Are AI and outsourcing coming for us all?  “All predictions are wrong, especially about the future” - Yogi Berra “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” - Mark Twain A pincer movement is a military tactic where two or more forces converge on an enemy target from different directions in a manner that resembles a pincer or a pair of pliers. This tactic aims to trap the enemy between the converging forces and to reduce their ability to retreat or maneuver. I will analyze the pincer movement of outsourcing and AI going after North American software developers' jobs and their high salaries. The terms developer, engineer, and programmer are used interchangeably, as I am talking about anyone who writes code in this article. Also, being a Canadian, I will use the term “North America” to lump us with the United States. Note that while I present some economic analysis, it is not a rigorous one to keep the material manageable and the content simple. A full analysis would cons...

The challenge of epistemology “It’s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future” — Yogi Berra A thief goes through the window in the middle of the night to make a grand jewelry heist. While tiptoeing inside the apartment, he sees the longcase clock with the time 1.05. He knows that the owners will be back at 1.15 AM. He decides that the safest thing for him is to exit and escape without getting the precious necklace. He can try again later. Unbeknownst to him, the clock had stopped working 12 hours ago, but at that moment, it just happened to be 1.05 AM. After the American philosopher Edmund Gettier, our thief experienced what has been dubbed a  Gettier  problem. These problems’ archetypes challenge the classical criteria for knowledge: justification, truth, and belief. In our example, the thief is justified in believing it’s 1.05 AM, and it is 1.05 AM, and he believes it. Yet he doesn’t have knowledge because the instrument he relies on is faulty. I recently ha...