[lostInTheWoods3]

The people on top desperately want us gone

This is a cynical view of the world. Maybe the people "on top" simply want to improve their company's efficiency in order to return value to investors, etc. My point being its economics, not some evil intent.

Software engineers need to recognize this common threat and organize (labor) sooner than later

And the point of that would be what? To protect our jobs by demanding that industry ignore and no longer pursue innovation? That seems like heresy for anyone in Tech.

If the day does come that AI starts writing code, the lost of our fat salaries and stock options will likely be the least of our problems; or perhaps the world will be void of problems altogether.

[visarga]

When automation comes and replaces us, we need to be owners of robots and AI, in other words to have some kind of capital and enjoy a revenue stream from it. If not robots, then at least we need to have land to cultivate for food. When nobody gives you a job any more, you either cultivate your own food, or associate with others to become investors in the new tech.

Those who already have capital and can invest it smartly might fare much better than those who only rely on BHI, which is at the whims of politicians. A person need not be super rich, if she can associate with other to buy land for agriculture or robots for manufacturing. Robots are analogous to land. You gotta have one or the other :-)