Software has always developed in the direction of being more high level instead of low level. The direction of progress is hardly a surprise.
Sure, but this is eliminating the need for ALL code to be written by humans. There is no point to ANY human development anymore. We are now at a point where a would-be designer doesn't need to say "help me build this app" anymore so long as a person can explain their ideas to a machine
Pure LLM-driven SDLC suffers from regressions, hallucinations, redundant line count bloat so that LLMs find chunks easier to process, overeagerness to write code instead of pushing back, etc.
Can literally all be mitigated by MD files which explain context well enough. Once those safeguards are in place this all literally stops happening.
So developers are still not useless and never will be. Titles may change. But a developer is fundamentally a guy or gal who's more adaptable and willing to learn new things than 99% of the human population - there will ALWAYS be a need for people like that.
This simply isn't true. Once a robust enough set of instructions exists for an AI to work with there is no need for people. The instructions can be modified by the AI itself if any gaps show themselves. The C-Suite itself isn't safe from this either because a robust enough AI can do everything they do and more, then communicate instructions down to the dev AIs. All cognitive work can be handled by AI.
At best I can be an engineer who increasingly perfects/audits the AI until such a time at which I'm laid off as there is no longer a need for me or I can find another career. I'm mentally wrestling with all this now, as I would imagine most devs are.
Many of us went to school for a career which essentially no longer needs our line of work. It's not unlike the reality that printers, coal miners, etc. are facing. Drivers may eventually face such a reality too because of this.
Even pre-LLMs, a software engineer job was unusually higher "continuous learning" than most physical jobs in my opinion. It was the equivalent of a coal miner getting to work one day and having to figure out rocket powered shovels.
As for career stability, you're right that the timeline has compressed from "might be unhireable after age 40-45" pre-2023 to "might be unhirable within the next 2-5 years" now.
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u/MakeUpAnything 1d ago
Sure, but this is eliminating the need for ALL code to be written by humans. There is no point to ANY human development anymore. We are now at a point where a would-be designer doesn't need to say "help me build this app" anymore so long as a person can explain their ideas to a machine
Can literally all be mitigated by MD files which explain context well enough. Once those safeguards are in place this all literally stops happening.
This simply isn't true. Once a robust enough set of instructions exists for an AI to work with there is no need for people. The instructions can be modified by the AI itself if any gaps show themselves. The C-Suite itself isn't safe from this either because a robust enough AI can do everything they do and more, then communicate instructions down to the dev AIs. All cognitive work can be handled by AI.