The End of Programming as We Know It

It just hit me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Remember those threads about how we’ve forgotten how to make good software? The ones where people marvel at programs written 20-30 years ago and complain that development isn’t what it used to be, engineers are getting weaker, everything’s being simplified, and the levels of abstraction just keep growing.

I think this trend will only intensify. In 50 years, people will stop programming altogether. Well, not in the way we’re used to. It’ll be more of a toy or hobby for fans of retro aesthetics. It’ll be some mix of visual editors with flowcharts and a dash of text prompts to describe the overall task and possible nuances. Writing code by hand? What nonsense.

Humans will just control the result, tweak the automation, make sure everything connects properly.

And they’ll completely stop thinking about where bytes go, which framework is being used, which language, syntax, and so on. That was always just extra information needed only to be able to write what you envisioned. Objectively just applied knowledge with no other value.

And knowledge of algorithms will be devalued too. There just won’t be any use for it. The robots do the heavy lifting.

We’ve already invented so much stuff that even a dumb machine can create apps at a junior-to-mid level. What can we expect from a smart one?

All the necessary knowledge is already there. The technology to use any knowledge will come too. As well as the ability to create new knowledge.

And that’s a good thing 💪