"...What do any of these educated and skilled people need with programming?..." Have you looked at want ads lately? Chef: must be able to work the mixomatic pr

"...What do any of these educated and skilled people need with programming?..." Have you looked at want ads lately? Chef: must be able to work the mixomatic programmable mixer. Electrician: must have knowledge of microcontrollers. Fashion designer: must be able to create digital mock-ups of new designs and work out how to automatically share them with our manufacturers. Pilots: must be able to work and program so many systems it would make your head spin. Musicians: must have knowledge of MIDI and be able to use a sequencer. Firefighters: must be able to program the engine and help with the local 911 modernization. Psychiatrist: must participate in the machine learning diagnostic project the hospital is undergoing. Must be able to work with data mining to determine non-current patients in need of intervention. And so on. These criteria are just made-up examples, but I could go on. We could easily pull down real ads. Let's try the most fuzzy one you have up there: artist. Know a writer who doesn't use a word-processor? They exist, sure, but not as many as before. In fact, most of them are now learning html and mixed media formats in order to eliminate publishers and broaden their base. It used to be the "traditional" writers didn't use software. Now they use software but don't configure and program it. The "new generation" of writers do that. What was optional is now becoming a necessity. What was "computer literate" is now looking more and more like programming. This trend will continue. Perhaps there is some exception. If so, I haven't thought of it. And you haven't listed it here. Yes, in some abstract, perfect way plumbing has nothing to do with computers. But that's the hell of the thing: the plumber in our imagination isn't the one in the real world. In the real world being a plumber means managing your scheduling system, your A/R, working with CAD drawings for a new construction site, buying mechanical devices that require configuration and programming, looking more into robotics for some types of work, and so it goes. The mental picture we have of these jobs and the actual way they are evolving are two different things entirely. You might be able to argue that one or the other jobs has more or less computers and programming in it, but that's a moot point. You're fighting a losing battle. They had zero ten years ago, they have some now, and they'll be mostly automated in just a decade or two. In some very real sense we are all becoming painters, just with a lot of technology to use instead of paints and brushes.