> Honestly it’s hard to refute the fact that we need roads and houses more than we need cat videos.
Software does more than cat videos.
Examples that may be relevant:
- CAD and simulation tools that physical world engineers use
- telecommunications (not just programmers, but programmers are vital for the current ultra-cheap generation)
- CT and MRI data processing
- alphafold
- scheduling systems for universities and other schools (makes education more scalable)
- infrastructure/systems programming (OS, web browser, etc.)
Furthermore, no one would claim that civil engineering is useless just because a certain class of billionaires liked to hire them to design silly structures. So, the prevalence of the less useful things speaks more to priorities as a society than anything about software engineering itself
Software does more than cat videos.
Examples that may be relevant:
- CAD and simulation tools that physical world engineers use
- telecommunications (not just programmers, but programmers are vital for the current ultra-cheap generation)
- CT and MRI data processing
- alphafold
- scheduling systems for universities and other schools (makes education more scalable)
- infrastructure/systems programming (OS, web browser, etc.)
Furthermore, no one would claim that civil engineering is useless just because a certain class of billionaires liked to hire them to design silly structures. So, the prevalence of the less useful things speaks more to priorities as a society than anything about software engineering itself