[olalonde]

On the other hand, there might come a time where software becomes so important and pervasive that it won't make sense anymore to call yourself a software engineer or a software company. I'm guessing there was once a time where the next big thing was to become a mathematician. However, mathematics has grown so central to so many fields that very few people nowadays call themselves mathematicians or dream of building mathematics companies. I wonder if programming will not simply become an increasingly important tool within other disciplines or if everyone is really just going to start studying CS/software engineering. This is probably more an argument on semantics than a rebuttal.

[moistgorilla]

I completely agree with this post, soon people are going to open their eyes and programming will be taught from elementary school to high school. Not being able to program will be equivalent to what being illiterate was.

[randomdata]

I agree, but I'll point out that programming has been part of the curriculum in this locality since at least the time my dad was in high school. He tells of writing programs on punch cards. We started with BASIC when I was in elementary school.

Despite that, I don't know of anyone who I went to school with that could write a single line of code today. Of them, I do have one friend who is also in the software business, but his skills lie in other area of production. He admits he cannot program.

For your vision to come true, programming will have to become much more fundamental, to the point that something else will have to be cut. Which other subject should get the axe?

[jboggan]

I agree with this, but I think we're closer to Pharaonic Egypt than the Enlightenment in terms of code literacy. We're going to be the scribes for a long, long time.

[socialist_coder]

100% agree

My child will be bilingual. English and 10010101001.