One thought re Manjoo (2023)—It’s the End of Computer Programming as We Know It. (And I Feel Fine.):
I cite to Ensmenger (2010)’s history of computing and technical expertise in my Appendix III. Code Generation Tools and Search musings on the potential impact of these new technologies, and then write (p. 133):
The programming languages used by my research participants are far simpler to use and understand than even the “automatic programming” languages of the past, like FORTRAN and COBOL. The hard problems remain, how to use a tool to do something you or someone else wants.
Relatedly: Arawjo (2023), on Twitter:
The history of programming is the history of reducing the effort required to communicate a design to a machine.
Arawjo, I. (2023). The history of programming is the history of reducing the effort required to communicate a design to a machine. Twitter; Tweet. https://twitter.com/ianarawjo/status/1665515419895988226?s=46 [arawjo2023history_twitter]
Ensmenger, N. (2010). The computer boys take over: Computers, programmers, and the politics of technical expertise. The MIT Press. [ensmenger2010computer]
Manjoo, F. (2023). It’s the end of computer programming as we know it. (And i feel fine.). The New York Times; Opinion article. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/opinion/ai-coding.html [manjoo2023end]