Running mills and production lines

What we are experiencing today is not unique in history. Many other industries have gone through similar transformations that enabled automations. What would the future look like if the software stops being handcrafted and becomes mass-produced?

I don't think at this point anyone debates whether LLMs are useful. The well-defined vocabulary and syntax of programming languages make them a perfect target to operate for LLMs. Even without tooling, they are very good at making sense of code (which is the hardest part of the job). It creates tests in a blink of an eye, makes planning changes easier, and certainly generates boilerplate code without specifying every detail. This is a fact that cannot be denied.

But the biggest advances come from the agents and the orchestration, even if we imagine that the models stop progressing overnight. Agents are leveraging tight feedback loops to bring models into life. They can observe, experiment, debug, and evolve. This abstraction could be key to achieving the next big leap: eliminating the human from the loop.

Although the agents are good at solving individual tasks, they are still lacking the ability to overtake a project end to end. This is where the orchestration comes into play. I cannot stop thinking about Gas Town since I read it. Imagining a system of digital actors which operates on a highly complex goal with almost real agency is so captivating. It is clear that once we have the right abstraction to the agent orchestrator, I cannot see why this wouldn't turn into a singularity moment.

The whole landscape has never been felt so unpredictable. Would there be a need for software at all? Do we care about the code quality or even architecture if we can create software and migrate on demand? Will our expertise only be relevant because of the mess that is accumulated over the years? Or are we just going to be a repair service for all software factories and change oil, clean the filters, and replace the worn-out parts?

I'm sure not many scribes had plans for the future when the printing press was invented. It is almost certain that software development will evolve into a different profession, and the main question is how can we prepare ourselves for this change. The only thing that we control is how to respond to the changes around us, and to get ready for the future.