Change is Here💥. The 5 Technologies That Mean Software Developers Are Irrelevant

Photo by Matt Hearne on Unsplash

Is it over? There are so many changes in software development that it feels like nobody can keep up. 5 seismic changes are going on in the tech field right now that you need to think about if you want to stay in the software development field.

“We all know that AI is one of these changes. It might surprise my less smart colleagues that AI is just one of FIVE changes.

If that includes you do educate yourself by reading on.”

It’s not all about AI

Many of our developer brethren are becoming overexcited about AI incoming and shaking up our jobs. 

Possible impact: might come and eat the lunches of no-code and low-code software developers .

Probable impact: some job displacement but that’s going to be years away (at best).

“Shift your estimate to the right. The truth is that the current misnamed AI systems are text prediction machines.
They’re not even that impressive when you code using the tools. I don’t think you should quit your job to become a spot welder just yet.

Simply because a topic is hot does not mean that it is necessarily going to change the world (at least yet). Sure I think the event of AI is going to make it very difficult for juniors to enter the industry but for more senior colleagues I don’t feel that AI is a transformative technology”

The 4 “other” revolutionary technologies

Quantum Computing

Quantum computers use the principles of quantum mechanics to process information in ways that traditional computers cannot, potentially solving complex problems much more efficiently.

Possible impact: Modern encryption algorithms will be broken. That is, they will not be safe from hackers in their current form. No security including bank transactions will be safe. The end of society will follow after the collapse of the financial system.

Probable impact: You might need to walk into a bank branch to get your pay while we figure out a better way to protect your transactions. You’ll need to code in a completely new way.

“Quantum computing is a big development for software developers. Instead of binary being on or off we have another option. Or we don’t. 

I don’t understand quantum computing. That’s a real issue and the way we work and cope with parallelism is going to be incredibly interesting.

We need to make sure we can keep up.”

Robotics

Advances in robotics, particularly in the areas of automation and machine learning, could lead to robots capable of performing complex tasks independently, potentially revolutionizing industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and more.

Possible impact: Soldiers will be replaced by machines, which resemble Termintors. We all die.

Probable impact: Some job displacement of manual work. People will have safer work.

“Opportunities for creating software for the new robotics solutions that we will come up with. We are going to need to understand something about machine learning and the challenges that occur from moving through physical space.

Probably significantly different from your daily work on accountancy software. So, you might want to be a little flexible in your understanding of software.”

Nanotechnology

The development of computers and other technologies at the nanoscale could lead to breakthroughs in a variety of fields, from medicine to materials science.

Possible impact: Little robots will run things. You won’t see them, but they’ll do stuff like fix your body and cure cancer. Other robots will be sent as part of war and rip apart your body from the inside.

Probable impact: Medical science and war will have applications. Probably scary because you won’t be able to see them.

“Imagine programming these things. Now also imagine instead of having 3nm chip designs you would be above to have much smaller chips. Take that Moore’s Law.”

Bioinformatics

The use of computers to analyze and interpret biological data has already led to breakthroughs in fields like genomics and proteomics. Further advances could revolutionize our understanding of biology and medicine.

Possible impact: Cure for cancer and your doctor will no longer need to have papers with your medical records as they’ll have connected insights to your medical conditions. Weaponized quick-spreading diseases. Covid-like, but much more deadly.

Probable impact: Cure for cancer and enhanced medical records

“Imagine a world where sickness pretty much ends. Wouldn’t that be nice?

We might be heading there so your 11 days of sick days this year might be at an end. You’ll actually need to show up to work for all of your work days.”

So, which is the most critical

It’s a tough competition. Which of these technologies is going to change us all and avoid producing misery and suffering?

”I know it’s awkward, but there isn’t one thing. Software developers need to be aware that ALL of these technologies are coming and will change your working life for good.

It’s either that or there is going to be a real issue that blows all of these technologies out of the water. Likely it will be ‘real AI’. That is going to be a real game changer for all of us.”

As to what that means, I guess we will need another article to explore this. Happy future reading (if we aren’t all dead).

Conclusion

“Try not to worry about it and go back to coding in your feature branch. Merge conflicts are probably more of a concern to you, so fix those first. Go on.”