I started a local vibecoders group because I think it has the potential to help my community.
(What is vibecoding? It’s a new word, coined last month. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding)
Why might it be part of a solarpunk future? I often see and am inspired by solarpunk art that depicts relationships and family happiness set inside a beautiful blend of natural and technological wonder. A mom working on her hydroponic garden as the kids play. Friends chatting as they look at a green cityscape.
All of these visions have what I would call a 3-way harmony–harmony between humankind and itself, between humankind and nature, and between nature and technology.
But how is this harmony achieved? Do the “non-techies” live inside a hellscape of technology that other people have created? No! At least, I sure don’t believe in that vision. We need to be in control of our technology, able to craft it, change it, adjust it to our circumstances. Like gardening, but with technology.
I think vibecoding is a whisper of a beginning in this direction.
Right now, the capital requirements to build software are extremely high–imagine what Meta paid to have Instagram developed, for instance. It’s probably in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s likely that only corporations can afford to build this type of software–local communities are priced out.
But imagine if everyone could (vibe)code, at least to some degree. What if you could build just the habit-tracking app you need, in under an hour? What if you didn’t need to be an Open Source software wizard to mold an existing app into the app you actually want?
Having AI help us build software drops the capital requirements of software development from millions of dollars to thousands, maybe even hundreds. It’s possible (for me, at least) to imagine a future of participative software development–where the digital rules of our lives are our own, fashioned individually and collectively. Not necessarily by tech wizards and esoteric capitalists, but by all of us.
Vibecoding isn’t quite there yet–we aren’t quite to the Star Trek computer just yet. I don’t want to oversell it and promise the moon. But I think we’re at the beginning of a shift, and I look forward to exploring it.
P.S. If you want to try vibecoding out, I recommend v0 among all the tools I’ve played with. It has the most accurate results with the least pain and frustration for now. Hopefully we’ll see lots of alternatives and especially open source options crop up soon.
(warning: I hate “vibe” coding for a lot of reasons, and even more what it represents)
LLMs are the opposite of anything ecological IMHO.
We have a thousand of those already. A better example is needed.
That’s not how any of this works. One more reason to shun those who do not care and take the time to understand what programming is all about.
Linux is free FFS, install Ubuntu today and you have all the languages you’ll ever need. How is
code vomitvibe coding helping? Also LLMs are very expensive to run right now, it’s the worst example.Last but not least, I hate how all the CEOs, managers, companies, and random people try to: pretend that open-source does not exist, change the meaning of the word open-source by associating it with binary blobs, and show developers as selfish people (“tech wizards”) who want to keep the technology for themselves.
You don’t want to learn how computer works and it’s fine, it’s your right, but don’t pretend it’s anyone’s fault.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I admire that, despite the clear differences we might feel around the subject. I’ll try to be thoughtful as well.
I think this is a really interesting point, and I hope to hear it unpacked some time. I’d be interested to know if you’re talking about American LLMs, or some other breed of LLMs, or the transformer algorithm that generates language models itself.
I mentioned this in another reply, but will repeat here a bit. I didn’t go into detail in the original post because I wanted to be brief. But the habit tracker app I was thinking about was something my daughter designed. She isn’t a coder. But she had a complex set of nuanced motivation ideas for herself–she wanted to make a system where if she didn’t something healthy for herself, she would be awarded stars, and if she did something social she would be awarded flowers. I’m doing her app a disservice by abbreviating it. She wrote a 19-page description (Product Requirements Doc, in engineering terms, but she wouldn’t know that term) in Google Docs, and then built her app in v0. She was so so excited to see her ideas come to life! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her really interested in computers.
I’m not sure what you mean here. I’m a FOSS developer. I know what open source is. I also know what it takes to start with an existing open source app and mold it into a new shape, based on new requirements that I have. What am I missing?
I’m running an LLM and a transcription service (audio -> text of my notes, synced via syncthing from mobile phone to server, then processed using n8n and a docker image of whisper-asr-webservice) on an nvidia 3080 GPU in my home, powered (mostly) by our solar panels. I’m exploring new paths, and vibecoding seems like an interesting one to me 🤷
I’m not sure that I agree with this statement.
I guess I didn’t think I was blaming anyone here.
My vision for the future is one where it’s more equitable–where digital algorithms don’t govern our lives like they (primarily at the hands of corporations) do today. I’m exploring what vibecoding might mean if it emancipates people to contribute to the ruleset that is often hidden from their view, especially when they don’t have computer/technical expertise (but also by just being a human being in this era, when mobile phones, social media, and unhealthy relating with devices are ubiquitous and basically just “expected” of you).
Nah, this person just has their pants on their head. A lot of us learned coding by dissecting existing code, and that’s totally a valid way to learn.
Are you seriously saying that we need to shun people who want to fork a project?
That is absolutely NOT what I was saying.
So how is molding an existing app “not how it works” in your world?
You can use Ghidra to decompile it but it’s a tiny bit more complicated.
Okay?
I’m still lost on how you think that you can’t modify existing apps?
One of the core tenants of solarpunk is accessibility. Not everyone is able to grasp how computers work, especially people who didn’t grow up with them. Our focus should be making the barriers to entry smaller, not bigger.
When I was young, we had to buy compilers that cost $1000. Everything is free now. I don’t know what you need.
I’m not complaining that poetry is too hard because dictionaries are too expensive. It’s a lack of willingness to learn that is holding people back. The barrier to entry has never been smaller. Install Ubuntu, the end.
What’s your next step? Me working for you for free? I’m not complaining about poets, wood workers, plumbers, or people who build houses. Do you think you can build a whole new civilization with lazy entitled people?