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It is important, but I prefer Eben Moglen's analogy: "Software is what the 21st century is made of. What steel was to the economy of the 20th century, what ste
by wingo 15y ago
It is important, but I prefer Eben Moglen's analogy:
"Software is what the 21st century is made of. What steel was to the economy of the 20th century, what steel was to the power of the 20th century, what steel was to the politics of the 20th century, software is now. It is the crucial building block, the component out of which everything else is made, and, when I speak of everything else, I mean of course freedom, as well as tyranny, as well as business as usual, as well as spying on everybody for free all the time."
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2011/fosdem/moglen-fosdem-keynote.html http://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2011/fosdem/moglen-fos...
- berntb 15y agoCheck the total number of steel workers as percentage of the work force in the year 1900 to a hundred years later. Very much less. My personal lesson from this, is that computer software jobs in general might soon have the hourly pay of PHP coders on elance. (Then the cycle of few people studying computer science will repeat... like ten years ago.)
- guard-of-terra 15y agoWhat makes you think "soon"? It's obvious that in some distant point of future programming will cease to be The hot thing to do, but what makes you think it might be soon enough for us to see it?
- adestefan 15y agoI'm not sure that steelworkers were ever "the hot thing to do." The downfall of the steel industry in the US is multifaceted, but mainly boils down to the fact that importing steel from outside US is cheaper than producing it in the US and technological improvements in building with steel has greatly reduced the number of people needed to construct things with steel. Take from that what you will about the software industry, but just remember that everyone either gets replaced by someone cheaper or technology takes their job away.
- sedachv 15y agoSteel workers were never highly paid. Engineers were, and continue to be.