Why I'm Not Down with GitHub Copilot

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

If you don’t know how something works, how can you fix it when it doesn’t work?

This is why I’m not entirely behind something like GitHub Copilot.

It’s already easy for developers to copy and paste code they find on the internet and implement it without understanding how it works.

Here’s a ridiculous, real-world example. In 1979, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was released. It had amazing special effects but awful pacing. It’s a slow movie, to put it lightly. Yet it’s been re-released twice in the past 20 years with additional special effects work…and not much done to improve its pace.

The special effects were never the problem, but that’s what they’ve “fixed”, twice.

This is a movie which includes a 10 minute long sequence with no dialog, just the characters flying through a cloud and looking at a viewscreen. They might as well have put the word “Intermission” on the screen during this sequence so the audience would know they could get up, use the bathroom, and not miss anything important.

I like the movie for what it is, I really do, but it’s an insomniac’s dream, and no amount of improved special effects is going to tighten it up. If they add more effects work and release it a third time without any pacing improvements, they should rename it “Star Trek: Ambien”, and require a prescription to see it.

And this is why I’m not sold on GitHub Copilot.

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