You can't vibe code hardware?
For many months, my business partner and I have been telling hardware startups - "well you can't vibe code hardware." We were influenced by an Economist article by Paul Achleitner: Economic Power is Returning to the Physical Realm (sorry, behind a wall). While Achleitner never says "you can't vibe code hardware," his message was loud and clear.
Software still matters. But as it becomes commoditised, economic power is flowing back to the physical layer of the economy. Control over energy, materials, infrastructure, robotics and industrial capacity will define competitiveness in the coming decade.
and
The next era of global competition will be decided not by who writes the best code, but by who can build, power and supply the physical systems on which the digital world ultimately depends.
I'm using Claude for the first time to design a physical product. And...it's liberating. Claude is not actually spitting out the physical component but it's accelerating the process by which that component comes into being. I have a detailed design spec, concept rendering, and Claude is about to write CAD code and export print-ready STL files. And, honestly, it's a different experience than building software with a model - no ClaudeFog! It's true that the model's limits are physical. It can’t measure physical items, hold an item, or feel whether something is too loose. I still need to be "its hands." Now...that's a scary statement. I'll be buying a digital caliper to play my role. So, is Claude vibe coding hardware?