I think programming will come to the people rather than the other way around. the tasks a person is able to do without any knowledge of the nuts and bolts of machine to machine interaction will become broader and easier to use.

Aren't we already seeing this with tools like Apple's Automator?

"At an early age, many young people learn the HTML language of Web pages and often branch out into its more powerful sister languages, such as XML ..."

..huh?