The Five-Year Competence Cliff: Why Critical Infrastructure Stops Working in 2030
The last generation who can maintain civilization’s core systems without AI assistance retires in five years. Nobody is training replacements. I. The Timeline Nobody Is Tracking 2020–2024: Infrastructure operates reliably. Senior engineers, operators, and technicians—trained before AI assistance became ubiquitous—maintain systems through deep understanding built over decades of independent problem-solving. When failures occur, these professionals … The Five-Year Competence Cliff: Why Critical Infrastructure Stops Working in 2030