The author is being deliberately obtuse. The claim is that only the work that happens above the programmer's level will be needed. Someone tells programmers what to write today, in a much higher level language called English. The claim is those instructions will suffice. And those instructions certainly are not code.
The author and you are both being obtuse now. You can play with words but if that scenario becomes reality, having a specialized developer role will be phased out because any idiot who knows English can replace them.
Even if you could code a program from casual english and simple instructions, there would still be an art to creating the correct specifications and wording to get a specific outcome.
Hasn't the coding job been 'about to be replaced' for a decade now?
I don't know how it is where you work, but what I get is just barely coherent. Shit like "The user interface shall be user-friendly." and "The security of the system shall be robust". I'm sure it'll work out great when computers write the code. You want Skynet? That's how you get Skynet.
The actual point here to me is that when computers are advanced enough to understand what we actually want not only from our words but also from context and 'knowing' us, they'll be intelligent enough to replace the person who wants the app (manager, politician...), too.
Edit: But the author of the comic does not seem to think that far - doesn't even get the fact that some programming languages are easier on the human brain than others.
Exactly. If a machine can understand natural language why would you waste it's time writing code? in fact when it gets to that point the machine and everyone else may have no idea of what low level instructions to run to convey the same thing as something in a spoken language they same way we have a huge gap of understanding between our physiology and our thoughts.
Possible - depends on how the first ai is programmed. But they'll have much better memory than humans, so they'll quickly be able to learn all about coding - much more than any humans will ever understand about our genes.
The people in the comments talking about how dumb this comic is, are like the same people who said switch board operators will never go away.
Programmers will definitely be out of business within the next hundred years, but there will be a new need for something different that evolves from a computer programming itself. Though, it will be more niche.
Well, I know many programmers who can barely do simple arithmetic. The main issue is we don't have a high bar for programmers and anyone can sit off on their coach and become one, with no training for education needed.
I wouldn't go that far, yes, sure, you can sit on your ass and learn programming but is someone actually willing to pay for someone that just knows how to do tutorials? You have to be somewhat creative and be a great problem solver to be a good programmer, decent skills in math and great at reading comprehension, people skills also help.
That is far from the truth. You can easily learn to code by doing tutorials and reading a book and doing the problem assignments. You don't need creativity or intelligence to be a programmer.
Now, will you succeed and go very far? No, but most companies don't care. If you can code android, good, that's all you will do and nothing more is needed. You debug and write code. That's it.
Programmers will definitely be out of business within the next hundred years, but there will be a new need for something different that evolves from a computer programming itself. Though, it will be more niche.
I think that there may be a need for programmers, but fewer of them, probably highly and specially trained, and involved deep in the system. The fact that a computer can write most of the code does not mean that there will be no place for humans in the equation. Then again, they might make us entirely obsolete. This is a hard one to predict.
The new thing would probably be "thinkers" someone intelligent and creative enough to come up with the idea necessary to get something done.
People always say an idea is worth nothing, but I think an idea is worth everything. There are few good ideas out there and it's hard to come up with a good idea.
I think programmers (and related fields, like tech support) will be among the last to be rationalised away - even though much more money is invested into getting rid of them than getting rid of middle management, administration, and other such jobs, where it would often be trivial to let a computer do the work at much higher quality.
Edit: Programmers, understanding the technology, will simply be more able to adapt to changing needs.
some AI's already know some people better than they know themselves. in the future we won't have to make specifications, in fact we would be worse at it than an AI would be.
A lot of compilers seem to do a half ass job also at churning out low level stuff also. You're going to need a person to look at the assembly and make every tweak to make a lot of these codes which run say millions of times a minute to be as efficient as possible.
53 comments
19 u/AmaleksHairyAss 06 May 2017 21:36
The author is being deliberately obtuse. The claim is that only the work that happens above the programmer's level will be needed. Someone tells programmers what to write today, in a much higher level language called English. The claim is those instructions will suffice. And those instructions certainly are not code.
8 u/alexkobold 07 May 2017 01:18
If we could "compile" a spec written in English into an executable file then the spec would be "code", no?
5 u/Pepper-theDoctor 07 May 2017 01:28
The author and you are both being obtuse now. You can play with words but if that scenario becomes reality, having a specialized developer role will be phased out because any idiot who knows English can replace them.
0 u/Wahaha 07 May 2017 11:59
When you're at the point where you can say "Make a program that earns me money", why even have some random idiot who knows English?
1 u/jxfaith 07 May 2017 18:19
Even if you could code a program from casual english and simple instructions, there would still be an art to creating the correct specifications and wording to get a specific outcome.
Hasn't the coding job been 'about to be replaced' for a decade now?
1 u/AmaleksHairyAss 08 May 2017 00:26
Even today a good supervisor can get a lot more out of a team of programmers. That doesn't make his spec lists code.
-1 u/cointelpro_shill 07 May 2017 03:53
"PROGRAMMER. Make me a new social media platform based on comparing your bowel movements... chop chop"
3 u/wallofsilence 07 May 2017 10:59
I don't know how it is where you work, but what I get is just barely coherent. Shit like "The user interface shall be user-friendly." and "The security of the system shall be robust". I'm sure it'll work out great when computers write the code. You want Skynet? That's how you get Skynet.
16 u/carlinco 06 May 2017 22:43
The actual point here to me is that when computers are advanced enough to understand what we actually want not only from our words but also from context and 'knowing' us, they'll be intelligent enough to replace the person who wants the app (manager, politician...), too.
Edit: But the author of the comic does not seem to think that far - doesn't even get the fact that some programming languages are easier on the human brain than others.
0 u/DickHertz 07 May 2017 08:40
Exactly. If a machine can understand natural language why would you waste it's time writing code? in fact when it gets to that point the machine and everyone else may have no idea of what low level instructions to run to convey the same thing as something in a spoken language they same way we have a huge gap of understanding between our physiology and our thoughts.
0 u/carlinco 07 May 2017 10:26
Possible - depends on how the first ai is programmed. But they'll have much better memory than humans, so they'll quickly be able to learn all about coding - much more than any humans will ever understand about our genes.
0 u/Wahaha 07 May 2017 12:04
..and they'll all code in Malbolge, just to spite us.
2 u/Philosopher_King 07 May 2017 01:14
The people in the comments talking about how dumb this comic is, are like the same people who said switch board operators will never go away.
Programmers will definitely be out of business within the next hundred years, but there will be a new need for something different that evolves from a computer programming itself. Though, it will be more niche.
0 u/VitamenGSpot 07 May 2017 02:34
It could be machine learning but none of the programmers I know are willing to learn the math.
-1 u/Philosopher_King 07 May 2017 15:50
Well, I know many programmers who can barely do simple arithmetic. The main issue is we don't have a high bar for programmers and anyone can sit off on their coach and become one, with no training for education needed.
0 u/scared_yung_father 07 May 2017 17:39
I wouldn't go that far, yes, sure, you can sit on your ass and learn programming but is someone actually willing to pay for someone that just knows how to do tutorials? You have to be somewhat creative and be a great problem solver to be a good programmer, decent skills in math and great at reading comprehension, people skills also help.
0 u/Philosopher_King 07 May 2017 19:45
That is far from the truth. You can easily learn to code by doing tutorials and reading a book and doing the problem assignments. You don't need creativity or intelligence to be a programmer.
Now, will you succeed and go very far? No, but most companies don't care. If you can code android, good, that's all you will do and nothing more is needed. You debug and write code. That's it.
0 u/tribblepuncher 07 May 2017 05:36
I think that there may be a need for programmers, but fewer of them, probably highly and specially trained, and involved deep in the system. The fact that a computer can write most of the code does not mean that there will be no place for humans in the equation. Then again, they might make us entirely obsolete. This is a hard one to predict.
2 u/worthlesshope 07 May 2017 09:51
The new thing would probably be "thinkers" someone intelligent and creative enough to come up with the idea necessary to get something done.
People always say an idea is worth nothing, but I think an idea is worth everything. There are few good ideas out there and it's hard to come up with a good idea.
0 u/carlinco 07 May 2017 10:30
I think programmers (and related fields, like tech support) will be among the last to be rationalised away - even though much more money is invested into getting rid of them than getting rid of middle management, administration, and other such jobs, where it would often be trivial to let a computer do the work at much higher quality.
Edit: Programmers, understanding the technology, will simply be more able to adapt to changing needs.
1 u/goatsandbros 06 May 2017 23:01
Declarative code, maybe.
0 u/greycloud 06 May 2017 22:54
some AI's already know some people better than they know themselves. in the future we won't have to make specifications, in fact we would be worse at it than an AI would be.
0 u/Pwning4Ever 06 May 2017 23:11
A lot of compilers seem to do a half ass job also at churning out low level stuff also. You're going to need a person to look at the assembly and make every tweak to make a lot of these codes which run say millions of times a minute to be as efficient as possible.
0 u/prairie 07 May 2017 03:23
Yep, the idea of a code factory already exists: it's called a compiler (and file copy/download).
0 u/roznak 07 May 2017 11:18
Without coders your application we be an exact same clone as the competition and you will not have an advantage. They all suck equally.
0 u/wesofx 08 May 2017 19:50
More abstractions! MORE ABSTRACTIONS!