About 30 years ago, I managed a program for development of a military system with an embedded microprocessor. I asked the engineers when the software which controls the system would be ready. A senior staff scientist told me, “software is never complete.” My reaction was somewhere between annoyance and disbelief. How could I explain this to the management to which I reported?
As time went on, I came to realize the truth of that remark. There may be problems in the initial release of the software (“bugs” we used to call them) that require rewriting a portion of the code. Sometimes there are several shortcomings requiring a new version. And frequently the designers discover new things that can be done with the software and prepare a major program upgrade. I suspect that some upgrades are mostly cosmetic where the suppliers have found this a means of increasing revenue. But in most cases, it would be difficult to find a point in time where the software is fully mature and not changeable.
The expanding use of computer control is another phenomena. Almost any product more complex than a can opener might be software controlled. (Whoops, I’m not sure that there aren’t software-controlled can openers). Airplanes fly and monitor their vitals with software; electricity flows on the grid under software control; the list is endless. A statement was made recently that a Honda Civic has more computing power than the Mercury spacecraft that made the first orbit of the earth in 1962 had. But that’s a “ho-hum” compared with some of the software capabilities at the consumer level. For example, the Highlight app can tell you on your tiny hand held device when a person selected as your friend is near by. (Not a critical thing in my mind, but I might be behind the times).
From all of this, there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that we frequently must buy new software to replace obsolescence in the amazing things that our computers, tablets, communicators, etc do. The good news—from the standpoint of the economy—is the growing number of job opportunities. Among these are the high-skill jobs such as system designers, which require unique creativity, independent thinking and often multi-discipline knowledge. These high skill individuals are vital because they create the product and market which results in new jobs at all levels.
In spite of mass unemployment, industry leaders complain about the lack of applicants for high-skill job openings such as software system designers. This raises the question of where these highly skilled persons will come from. Will our schools provide the inspiration to the young people of our citizenry to acquire the top skills needed for economy advancement? Will the foreign students, often driven by hunger, be able to remain here and contribute to our economy when they finish their studies? These are questions to ponder.
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