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"Here's an algorithm, translate it to opcodes for this machine" used to be a full-time job for human beings. They weren't designing software the way we do, they

"Here's an algorithm, translate it to opcodes for this machine" used to be a full-time job for human beings. They weren't designing software the way we do, they were compiling what someone else had already designed. Our role is automating rote work, but we have to accept that we're ending the demand for certain jobs. Not every programmer became a systems analyst.

perl4ever 7y ago
That is the same job as any programmer does today. I've done it, in the absence of an assembler, so I think I should know. I also know that programmers in the 50s who were thought of as like secretaries, adjuncts to the real thinkers/designers/engineers were basically the same as programmers today, not FAANG programmers, but mundane business programmers. You want an AI to program? Give it this and watch it go all HAL 9000: https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-multi-page-unbreakableblocks https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-m... ...you want to...break...unbreakable blocks?? Sure. You know, do what I mean, not what I say... Programming is a social activity, and programmers are not computers.