This problem, taken more generally, is the question "What will come of us as we progress towards the singularity?" Most of us assume every job will eventually

This problem, taken more generally, is the question "What will come of us as we progress towards the singularity?" Most of us assume every job will eventually be automated on some longterm time scale. This is based on the assumption is that all the hard AI problems will be solved. The only argument to be had, then, is which of the jobs will be automated first? Design (Artistry), or Engineering? Many commenters here (as engineers, I assume) defend the longterm prospects of engineering. Let's try to break this problem down a bit. If you want to automate the creation of art, which I assume is the capability to give a computer an input similar to "Design a good looking site", or "Make a pretty picture", then you need a computer that has knowledge of 1) computers, and 2) humans. If the computer doesn't understand humans as well as humans themselves do, then the art will be limited and there will be humans who can create better art. If you want to automate Engineering, you need a computer that has knowledge of 1) computers, and 2) the language and communication required by artists. This seems at first glance not much different from solving the hardest AI problems, but the knowledge required is a small subset of total human knowledge, and it's possible that this is implemented first because of hardware limitations preventing us from solving true, complete human-knowledge AI. We, as engineers, are putting ourselves out of jobs. We're making our jobs easier by creating better programming languages and automating as much of our own work as possible. There has to be a limit to this, after which we're no longer telling a computer lines of code, but instead speaking to it in natural language. Once this happens, we're no longer necessary. But I can see a future where the people telling the machines what to do are still valuable, though they will eventually be automated too.