What do we need so many more programmers for anyway?
The internet was world-changing. I have no doubt that in 1990-something more getting more programmers in the world was a very laudable goal. What do we need a world population filled with coders for now though? Endless UI permutations? Is there really a whole new, currently un-thought of world changing application just waiting to be written for the benefit of humanity? What is it, an iPhone game? Come on!
We need more scientists working on clean energy solutions. They are going to need to study things like physics and chemistry. Somehow I don't think learning to type things like "$polution=0;" and "$efficiency=100;" are going to cut it. How about some more medical researchers? I would really really love to see many or any of the diseases and/or bad effects of time that eventually kill us all cured before the day that they do me in myself.
How about some engineers to invent more and better labor saving devices to make our lives more enjoyable. While they are at it they can always come up with some new manufacturing methods allowing us to produce more stuff for less time and money. Of course, with that kind of thing it would be nice if we had some philosophers or politicians or whatever come up with some ways we can all benefit from this saving of labor rather than just a few. You know.. ways that work, not like the things which have been actually tried. I can't wait for my 20 hour work week!
Of course.. while we are making life here on Earth better there is still the fact that Earth is only a small part of a very large universe. Surely there are great things waiting out there somewhere! How about an actual space program, one with an actual goal of spreading humanity out there? Of course that will require rocket scientists, engineers and all sorts of support people.
Meanwhile life does go on. We will still need people doing all the ordinary things, growing food, preparing it, running stores, building things, fixing things, teaching our children and everything else. Yes, some will even be needed to write code. But surely not everyone! I don't see how programming has somehow become more important than everything else that we need to encourage all children to become programmers rather than whatever they otherwise would have been.