The AI-Augmented Developer Manifesto

We are witnessing a transformation in how we create and build with technology. In fact, there are NOT two distinct approaches - rather, we're experiencing the inevitable progression of transhumanism that has been underway for decades. This symbiotic relationship between humans and technology continues to root deeper into our society with each advancement. This process started long ago, but it's only recently become obvious through powerful models like ChatGPT that have made these capabilities widely accessible. As further we go, the more deeply transhumanism will integrate into our society.

Time is our most precious resource. Despite all our technological progress, we work longer hours than our ancestors. Housing costs and inflation outpace our wages. We have built automation for the world while failing to liberate ourselves.

As we move toward increasingly capable artificial intelligence, developers face a choice not between replacement and resistance, but between augmentation and limitation.

Computing power has become a new form of capital. The gap between those with access to it and those without grows daily. Companies like NVIDIA, AMD, Anthropic, and OpenAI understand the equation that defines our era: computational capacity = economic potential.

Just as financial education determines economic outcomes, understanding how to leverage AI will increasingly determine professional success. The AI-augmented developer embraces this symbiotic relationship - not as a replacement for human creativity, but as an amplification of it.

We believe:

The term "AI-augmented developer" represents anyone who creates value using AI - whether they code or not. It embraces assistance without surrendering agency. This acknowledges that our value has never been in routine tasks, but in our uniquely human capacities: problem definition, ethical judgment, creative vision, and determining which problems are worth solving.

Every hour saved through AI-augmented workflows is an hour returned to life, to creation, to meaning. While others debate theoretical implications, we build better solutions today.

The benefits of this approach must be shared broadly. Just as the advantages of previous technological revolutions eventually extended beyond those who controlled the initial resources, the economic and creative benefits of AI augmentation should be accessible to all.

We reject both blind technophobia and naive techno-utopianism. AI is neither savior nor destroyer - it is a tool of unprecedented power that amplifies the intent of whoever wields it.