I agree with Steve's assessment that programming is a core skill. I also feel strongly that a good portion of the population are loosing the ability to think for themselves. How many times do we hear "not my job" or listen to people who intentionally leave things left unsaid because they don't want to deal with them or don't know how? How often do we sanction incompetence by tolerating it?

Jeff is absolutely right in his assessment that there are a lot of developers haven't gotten the meaning of the word; they simply don't have the "geek gene" in their makeup. In fact, this also ties into thinking for yourself. When some developers don't have a utility or program to handle something for them, I've seen plenty of people throw their hands up and saw "it can't be done" when, in fact, a little ingenuity is all that's necessary. Even developers don't want to develop things for themselves. On a related note, how many forum posts have we read for homework or where people don't even try before posting?

Technology is a part of our lives and is definitely here to stay for the foreseeable future. Yes, it's being made simpler and simpler, but the developers are doing that to deal with the masses which technology is now reaching. In the end, I think that hardcore developers will remain necessary for quite a while. And don't forget about people to manage all this data. People are still a relevant piece of the technology equation.