There was a point in the history of aviation where anyone who could fly a plane was also capable of constructing and designing one. I wonder if there were similar concerns at that time about a future where someone could be in a cockpit of a plane without truly understanding how the machine works from first principles?
Today that type of concern would seem absurd, and we've gotten used to the idea that flying a plane and building it are separate skillsets and jobs. After all, we are comfortable with aviation engineers designing the aircraft without knowing how to mine the bauxite, smelt it to aluminium, and machine it into aircraft parts.
As comforting as it is to have an overview of how to trace a complete path from logic gate to web request, it isn't necessary. The decrease in the number of engineers with that overview isn't a cause for alarm, or a problem to be solved. It is just a sign that "tech" has matured, and it is stratifying into a set of interlocking disciplines. The same happened with every other subject in human history, and we've been just fine...
Today that type of concern would seem absurd, and we've gotten used to the idea that flying a plane and building it are separate skillsets and jobs. After all, we are comfortable with aviation engineers designing the aircraft without knowing how to mine the bauxite, smelt it to aluminium, and machine it into aircraft parts.
As comforting as it is to have an overview of how to trace a complete path from logic gate to web request, it isn't necessary. The decrease in the number of engineers with that overview isn't a cause for alarm, or a problem to be solved. It is just a sign that "tech" has matured, and it is stratifying into a set of interlocking disciplines. The same happened with every other subject in human history, and we've been just fine...