Funny, I always thought of either "Where is Carmen Santiago" or the " Red Hat Society" that my wife belonged too. Just saying.

Not surprising, You can bring in help from elsewhere cheaper then moving and paying a good salary to a home grown person usually.This is the cost, or cost avoidance of a global community. This is not a bad thing, as it keeps cost down, but it discourages citizens from studying for the jobs.

Whats the point? Online courses are all open-book tests. Who will monitor? Students take the test at their leisure. The last Online course I taught had students all across the nation, and in the far & middle east all at the same time. Monitoring the test would be a joke. There in lays the whole problem of online courses, the student does not have to learn, they can just use references and put in the time. Also, in my decades of work in the real world, the smartest people I knew, were the ones that knew were to look up the information they needed was. The problem with online courses, is that they do not teach the fundamentals that you for that.

As a member of the Obsolete generation, I have a "biased" view of what was stated. The industry is guilty of being Ageist, and Sexist. Also of being blind to history. Thus they repeat it. All the "new" innovations are based on reworked versions of past innovations. The Cowboys rule and they have always. Companies and schools have tried to impose standards, but fail because results count, not support ability. Batch job submission became RJE, RJE became RPC with a GUI, Time sharing became CIS, Citrix is timesharing in a new wrapper. Everything old is new again once its repackaged. But show me the Millennial that understands that and they are just as obsolete as I am. There is not a shortage of qualified programmers, there is a shortage of Mid and upper management, and young programmers that understand this. Its the nature or culture of IT in general. .Who can do it quick that counts. That is why we have always had want ads that ask for 5 years experience with a product that has been out for 6 months. In the end it does not matter if programmers are professional enough, they will be phased out by AI not too for in the future. Many who call themselves programmers today are little more then scrip writers. Its a dying industry.

many years ago, I worked for a large Utility as a Security Supervisor (IT), my manager and I recommended against outsourcing a digitized version of our Scada network. We were laughed out of the room by the distribution and money people, even though we raised flags about having this done by "marginal" countries due to it being vital infrastructure. Neither of us lasted long with the company after that. Now their worried, just because that country harbored the leader of a terrorist group and denied it.. We sew what we plant and we gave them the plans.

This is nothing new. Having worked in IT for over 50 years I have seen this many times. Bottom line, its a cost issue. Contractors can be let go faster then employees, there are no legacy or current benefits to pay. You can "ramp up" and down your staff. The contractor usually cost a little more per hour, but easily replaced or removed. The "lie" that there are no qualified US based candidates, at any price is false and always has been. What companies get with H1B staff is "cheap" labor that is well educated and motivated. I can tell you that I have always seen adds for 5 years experience in new tech at lousy salaries for "young" staff. Their is feeling in the industry that your stale if you are over 40, you want too much money and you will not work for a younger boss. The truth, and I have seen this, is that you can contract young H1Bs, pay less, dispose of them when done and keep the cream till later. Life's bitch, but that's reality. I lived with it and so must the current generation. It's not going to change. Costs must be low to complete. At least the H1B's pay us tax's, that better the offshoring the job.

This article says it was tried in the 70's, let not forget the work a Russian did in the late 40's and 50's. If you can move the head, why can they fix spinal cord injuries?

Just think, we could program with your personal beliefs and understanding of the rules of God. Then they could have apps to tell them if other are not true believers. They could kill anyone that they see commit a sin or they might ask a question about what you believe, depending on your belief system, it could be programmed to kill the infidel. Boy that was make for an interesting world.

Its a start, how long till Asimov's Positronic Brain..........is US Robots's funding this?

And build new homes to sell, more employment.....

Lets hear it for deregulation... This is a Win Win for everyone. The Gas companies get the land for cheap lease rates, Little or no regulation or enforcement of the existing regulations. The practice is generating jobs for home repairs, increased insurance rates and payouts, This all is a business driven economic stimulus plan to create jobs and get cash flowing in a normally economically depressed state. The water pollution drives the need for water filtering systems, filters and treatment, all job generators. The people that have houses that can not be repaired are most likely eyesores anyway, so they can be torn down, more jobs. Whats the down side?