Oh my, no. Fabrics and things made from fabrics remain largely produced by human workers.

Those textile workers were afraid machines would replace them, but that didn't happen - the work was sent overseas, to countries with cheaper labor. It was completely tucked away from regulation and domestic scrutiny, and so remains to this day a hotbed of human rights abuses.

The phenomenon you're describing wasn't an industry vanishing due to automation. You're describing a moment where a domestic industry vanished because the cost of overhauling the machinery in domestic production facilities was near to the cost of establishing an entirely new production facility in a cheaper, more easily exploitable location.

I think you're talking about people who sew garments, not people who create textile fabrics. In any case, the 19th century British textile workers we all know I'm talking about really did lose their jobs, and those jobs did not return.

430 million people currently work in textiles[0]; how big was the industry before mechanical looms?

[0] https://www.uniformmarket.com/statistics/global-apparel-indu...

How many worked in America and Western Europe and were paid a living wage in their respective countries, and how many of those 430 million people currently work making textiles in America and Western Europe today, and how many are lower paid positions in poorer countries, under worse living conditions? (Like being locked into the sweatshop, and bathroom breaks being regulated?)

Computers aren't going anywhere, so the whole field of programming will continue to grow, but will there still be FAANG salaries to be had?

That's a different topic entirely.

I think this is THE point.

It solely depends on whether more software being built is being constrained by feasibility/cost or a lack of commercial opportunities.

Software is typically not a cost constrained activity due to its typically higher ROI/scale. Its all about fixed costs and scaling profits mostly. Unfortunately given this my current belief is that on balance AI will destroy many jobs in this industry if it gets to the point where it can do a software job.

Assuming inelastic demand (software demand relative to SWE costs) any cost reductions in inputs (e.g. AI) won't translate to much more demand in software. The same effect that drove SWE prices high and didn't change demand for software all that much (explains the 2010's IMO particularly in places like SV) also works in reverse.

Is there a good reason to assume inelastic demand? In my field —- biomedical research —-I see huge untapped areas in need of much more and better core programming services. Instead we “rely” way too much on grad students (not even junior SWEs) who know a bit of Python.

Depends on the niche (software is broad) but I think as a whole for the large software efforts employing a good chunk of the market - I think so. Two main reasons for thinking this way:

- Software scales; generally it is a function of market size, reach, network effects, etc. Cost is a factor but not the greatest factor. Most software makes profit "at scale" - engineering is a capital fixed cost. This means that software feasibility is generally inelastic to cost or rather - if I make SWE's cheaper/not required to employ it wouldn't change the potential profit vs cost equation much IMV for many different opportunities. Software is limited more by ideas, and potential untapped market opportunities. Yes - it would be much cheaper to build things; but it wouldn't change the feasibility of a lot of project assessments since cost of SWE's at least from what I've seen in assessments isn't the biggest factor. This effect plays out to varying degrees in a lot of capex - as long as the ROI makes sense its worth going ahead especially for larger orgs who have more access to capital. The ROI from scale dwarfs potential cost rises often making it less of a function of end SWE demand. This effect happens in other engineering disciplines as well to varying effects - software just has it in spades until you mix hardware scaling into the mix (e.g GPUs).

- The previous "golden era" where the in-elasticity of software demand w.r.t cost meant salaries just kept rising. Inelasticity can be good for sellers of a commodity if demand increases. More importantly demand didn't really decrease for most companies as SWE salaries kept rising - entry requirements were relaxing generally. The good side of in-elasticity is reversed potentially by AI making it a bad thing.

However small "throwaway" software which does have a "is it worth it/cost factor" will increase under AI most probably. Just don't think it will offset the reduction demanded by capital holders; nor will it be necessarily done by the same people anyway (democratizing software dev) meaning it isn't a job saver.

In your case I would imagine there is a reason why said software doesn't have SWE's coding it now - it isn't feasible given the likely scale it would have (I assume just your team). AI may make it feasible, but that doesn't help the OP in the way it does it - it does so by making it feasible for as you put it junior out of uni not even "SWE" grads. That doesn't help the OP.

And that was good. Workers being replaced by tools is good for society, although temporarily disruptive.