This reduces to the question of: will technical innovation slow down? Hand-crafted code, composed by thoughtful experts, is a really useful tool when exploring

This reduces to the question of: will technical innovation slow down? Hand-crafted code, composed by thoughtful experts, is a really useful tool when exploring new technologies or when adapting technologies to new industries. But as when a technology-industry fit matures, and innovation slows down, you can start working in larger grains that require less crafting and less expertise. The problem domains are understood, the tools are stable, and there’s an affordance for inefficiencies. People with industry expertise and vaguely literate in programming concepts can build the tools they need without the intervention of a professional engineer. This maturation process has already happened a thousand times in various industries, and sometimes we see it disrupted by new innovation. If there continues to be widespread innovation and disruption, we’ll still need lots and lots of professional programmers writing code. If, instead, industry problems can genuinely be optimized or technical innovation can encounter practical limits, professional coding will narrow to smaller and smaller niches. We’re probably still a long way from the latter scenario. I’d say your career as a software engineer is safe. Your daughter’s? Harder to say.