Software engineering is wrestling with cognitive debt — the loss of shared understanding that accelerates when AI generates code faster than humans can assimilate it. The contradictions feel new. They aren't.
Six other domains faced the same structural contradictions, often at stakes where failure meant death. Each found a resolution. None of the resolutions involved slowing down.
1. The Velocity-Comprehension Gap
The software contradiction: AI generates code faster than humans can understand it. Speed goes up, comprehension goes down.
The extreme version: Nuclear reactor operations
