Post #259573

2026-02-11 16:20 UTC

@V0ldek@awful.systems @cstross@wandering.shop I couldn't even read the whole list after seeing "CNC Programmers" on it. That may not be the most absurd, but the idea of "here's a robot with a sharp blade spinning at high RPM that we're using to make a physical object with extreme precision, so we fired the human who knows how it works to save money and gave it to the hallucination box" makes Willy's Chocolate Experience seem like a warmup. I just hope there's video. Lots of video. Ideally from behind safety glass.

Replies (9)

@teajaygrey@snac.bsd.cafe 2026-02-11 16:34

Meanwhile, I'm lookin at the list and amazed by the number of "jobs" I have apparently had (which never paid me in the first place). Certainly, any time I was invited to deejay on the radio, it was never paid. Moreover, even in the 1990s I knew a fellow radio DJ who was more or less replaced by a CD jukebox with song choices dictated from on high and he was basically the voice in between tunes and ads to make it seem as if it wasn't evil overlords. Maybe, he got paid? I have my doubts. CC: @V0ldek@awful.systems @cstross@wandering.shop

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@Cadbury_Moose@wandering.shop 2026-02-11 16:39

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross Safety glass Hell: I'd insist on remote cameras and several feet of reinforced concrete.

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@spacebarbarian@mstdn.social 2026-02-11 16:47

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross The original poster of this story can't read. Somebody in the Bluesky thread found the original paper. The research looked at people in these professions using LLM assistance in their workflow. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07935

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@durandal@oldbytes.space 2026-02-11 17:39

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross That and we’re literally giving it the means of production. Hopefully they’ve all ingested Das Capital…

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@spry@social.lol 2026-02-11 19:08

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross I came across a machining YouTuber that was asking Grok for feeds and speeds a while ago. Was immediately terrified. Haven’t checked their channel lately. Wonder if they are still intact…

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@SoftwareTheron@mas.to 2026-02-11 20:11

@geeksam *Leaded* glass, I hope! It's only a matter of time before someone in the Hegseth DoD decides this will be excellent for machining plutonium pits. @V0ldek @cstross

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@StompyRobot@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-02-11 20:39

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross Production CNC machines are beyond safety glass and sheet metal already. Sometimes even in work cell cages! Programming CNC has been done by opening up the print or CAD model and telling the CAM package to generate the tool paths for many years already. Sometimes programmers edit the generated code a little bit to adapt it, but there's little zero risk in trying machine models on this. The worst that can happen is a crash that scraps a $50k spindle.

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@dymaxion@infosec.exchange 2026-02-12 09:34

@geeksam @V0ldek @cstross Don't worry, any video not shot from behind safety glass will suffer from rapid existence failure

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@troed@swecyb.com 2026-02-17 14:11

@geeksam Can confirm. Inbetween me being a self-taught coder in my youth to getting a degree in Software Engineering I also took a detour and got a degree as a Mechanical Engineer. That involved CAD/CAM and running the output on CNC machines. Which involved hitting the metal piece with the head too far down and metal being flung around at ludicrous speed. @V0ldek @cstross

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