That was the question I was asked sometime in the late 1970s as I and a colleague carpooled to our offices at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A true story: back then the profession of software development was so new that people didn\u2019t know what to label us; we didn\u2019t know what to call ourselves, even. Systems Programmer? Applications Programmer? Operator? My official title back then was \u201cSystems Analyst,\u201d whatever that meant. But I was a coder (that word didn\u2019t exist either). I wrote assembly language and FORTRAN for a Univac 1100 mainframe that controlled the first-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). Yup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Age of Gates Gives Way to Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.barrybriggs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-300x300.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nBefore that, from World War II through the 1950s, I\u2019ll call the Age of Gates. The majority of computing effort went into understanding and implementing how large numbers of logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, etc.) could be put together in hardware in efficient ways \u2013 first with huge banks of vacuum tubes, then with literal magnets, and ultimately with solid-state transistors. (You could open one of the mainframes I worked on back in the day and see the tiny little circular magnets \u2013 main memory \u2013 painstakingly wired together by human beings.) Concepts like registers, instruction sets, caches, persistent storage, and so on, all had to be invented; and there were countless wrong turns and dead ends along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.barrybriggs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png\")
<\/a>Vacuum tube memory<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nEarly hardware was incredibly unreliable. But eventually the bugs (the word actually comes from a moth<\/a> caught in an early machine) were worked out, and computers began to proliferate in government and commercial environments. And with them, people to write the early programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Age of Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Countless software paradigms followed: high-level languages (HLLs) like FORTRAN and COBOL; so-called \u201cstructured programming;\u201d object orientation; JIT languages; strongly and weakly typed; aspect-oriented programming; service-oriented architecture; microservices; interpreted languages; compiled languages; transpiled languages; and so on ad nauseum. <\/em>It\u2019s certainly not a complete list and not all survived the test of time. But I lived through all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd, it\u2019s worth pointing out, no company capitalized on this Age of Code than Microsoft. The Redmond-based company (which quite literally owes existence to the Worst Business Decision in History, when IBM allowed tiny Microsoft a non-exclusive license to PC-DOS, enabling in turn the birth of the PC market\u2026but I digress) recognized that programmers write applications that run on \u2013 and thus sell — their OS. Who can forget Steve Ballmer in 1999 shouting \u201cDevelopers, developers, developers!<\/a>\u201d on stage, exhorting his company\u2019s core market?<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.barrybriggs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-2.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIt was a wonderful time. Today, tens of millions of individuals claim the title \u201cSoftware Engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Age of Code coincides almost exactly with my professional life, from the 1970s until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is drawing to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Age of Tokens is Upon Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We all know what happened on November 30, 2022: ChatGPT was released to the world. Soon it became apparent that Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT and Sonnet and DeepSeek could write code themselves: not good code at first, but after a time, pretty darned good. And today they write emails, compose poetry, plan your day, and offer advice and companionship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tokens \u2013 just words, syllables, punctuation \u2013 are the currency, the fuel for LLMs. LLMs convert your prompts into tokens, process them, and spit them back out as responses, combining them into sentences or code \u2013 or tables, music, pictures, or presentations. Increasingly we get computers to do our bidding not by programming in some arcane language but telling them in English what we want them to do. Want an application to handle purchase orders? Or schedule your child\u2019s soccer team practice? Just tell your friendly AI to write the code for you. And then tell another AI to review and improve that code. And another one to write unit tests.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.barrybriggs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nA Gutenberg Moment, and a Sad One at That<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It’s a Gutenberg moment in history, when everything changes. \u201cToday there are fewer programmers in the United States than at any point since 1980,\u201d according to the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd there\u2019s no going back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a bittersweet moment for me, seeing the profession I dedicated my adult life to start to fade away. But \u2013 as they say \u2013 that\u2019s progress for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, I\u2019m reminded of a short story the legendary sci-fi author Isaac Asimov wrote all the way back in 1958 entitled \u201cThe Feeling of Power\u201d (read it here<\/a> in the Internet Archive). The main character, a \u201clittle man\u201d named Myron Aub, has rediscovered the art of long division by hand, lost as calculators and computers became ubiquitous. Generals, congressmen, even the president, are terrified: \u201cNow we have in our hands a method of going beyond the computer, leapfrogging it, passing through it,\u201d worries a congressman.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs natural language becomes the predominant means of interacting with computers, will we forget programming? Will someone in the distant future \u201crediscover\u201d how to program a CPU in assembly language? It\u2019s as if, in the last century, we\u2019ve built a new kind of matter, a new Standard Model, or DNA, upon which future generations will add additional layers of unbelievable sophistication, to the point that, maybe a century from now, gates and registers and instruction sets become arcane, and perhaps lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope they rediscover us, the Coders, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3 Ages Diagram and AI Tokens image, me and Google Nano Banana Pro<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vacuum tube memory, Columbia University https:\/\/www.columbia.edu\/cu\/computinghistory\/tubes.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.barrybriggs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nBefore that, from World War II through the 1950s, I\u2019ll call the Age of Gates. The majority of computing effort went into understanding and implementing how large numbers of logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, etc.) could be put together in hardware in efficient ways \u2013 first with huge banks of vacuum tubes, then with literal magnets, and ultimately with solid-state transistors. (You could open one of the mainframes I worked on back in the day and see the tiny little circular magnets \u2013 main memory \u2013 painstakingly wired together by human beings.) Concepts like registers, instruction sets, caches, persistent storage, and so on, all had to be invented; and there were countless wrong turns and dead ends along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a>Early hardware was incredibly unreliable. But eventually the bugs (the word actually comes from a moth<\/a> caught in an early machine) were worked out, and computers began to proliferate in government and commercial environments. And with them, people to write the early programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Countless software paradigms followed: high-level languages (HLLs) like FORTRAN and COBOL; so-called \u201cstructured programming;\u201d object orientation; JIT languages; strongly and weakly typed; aspect-oriented programming; service-oriented architecture; microservices; interpreted languages; compiled languages; transpiled languages; and so on ad nauseum. <\/em>It\u2019s certainly not a complete list and not all survived the test of time. But I lived through all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, it\u2019s worth pointing out, no company capitalized on this Age of Code than Microsoft. The Redmond-based company (which quite literally owes existence to the Worst Business Decision in History, when IBM allowed tiny Microsoft a non-exclusive license to PC-DOS, enabling in turn the birth of the PC market\u2026but I digress) recognized that programmers write applications that run on \u2013 and thus sell — their OS. Who can forget Steve Ballmer in 1999 shouting \u201cDevelopers, developers, developers!<\/a>\u201d on stage, exhorting his company\u2019s core market?<\/p>\n\n\n It was a wonderful time. Today, tens of millions of individuals claim the title \u201cSoftware Engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Age of Code coincides almost exactly with my professional life, from the 1970s until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it is drawing to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know what happened on November 30, 2022: ChatGPT was released to the world. Soon it became apparent that Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT and Sonnet and DeepSeek could write code themselves: not good code at first, but after a time, pretty darned good. And today they write emails, compose poetry, plan your day, and offer advice and companionship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tokens \u2013 just words, syllables, punctuation \u2013 are the currency, the fuel for LLMs. LLMs convert your prompts into tokens, process them, and spit them back out as responses, combining them into sentences or code \u2013 or tables, music, pictures, or presentations. Increasingly we get computers to do our bidding not by programming in some arcane language but telling them in English what we want them to do. Want an application to handle purchase orders? Or schedule your child\u2019s soccer team practice? Just tell your friendly AI to write the code for you. And then tell another AI to review and improve that code. And another one to write unit tests.<\/p>\n\n\n It’s a Gutenberg moment in history, when everything changes. \u201cToday there are fewer programmers in the United States than at any point since 1980,\u201d according to the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s no going back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a bittersweet moment for me, seeing the profession I dedicated my adult life to start to fade away. But \u2013 as they say \u2013 that\u2019s progress for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, I\u2019m reminded of a short story the legendary sci-fi author Isaac Asimov wrote all the way back in 1958 entitled \u201cThe Feeling of Power\u201d (read it here<\/a> in the Internet Archive). The main character, a \u201clittle man\u201d named Myron Aub, has rediscovered the art of long division by hand, lost as calculators and computers became ubiquitous. Generals, congressmen, even the president, are terrified: \u201cNow we have in our hands a method of going beyond the computer, leapfrogging it, passing through it,\u201d worries a congressman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As natural language becomes the predominant means of interacting with computers, will we forget programming? Will someone in the distant future \u201crediscover\u201d how to program a CPU in assembly language? It\u2019s as if, in the last century, we\u2019ve built a new kind of matter, a new Standard Model, or DNA, upon which future generations will add additional layers of unbelievable sophistication, to the point that, maybe a century from now, gates and registers and instruction sets become arcane, and perhaps lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope they rediscover us, the Coders, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 Ages Diagram and AI Tokens image, me and Google Nano Banana Pro<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vacuum tube memory, Columbia University https:\/\/www.columbia.edu\/cu\/computinghistory\/tubes.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Age of Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe Age of Tokens is Upon Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nA Gutenberg Moment, and a Sad One at That<\/h2>\n\n\n\n