> One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive — it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.

- Eric Hoffer

but so many things we have are black boxes now. do people need to understand how cars work to drive them properly?

And even if you understand how it works, how does it affect your day-to-day function or the advancement of the field? As Apple liked to say, It Just Works (TM).

> Just like with mathematicians, is it all really just about people losing a random, replaceable job and what they enjoyed about it?

For me it's about losing much of the entire career, because companies will come to expect AI-level work that I can't/won't provide.

> Being able to program means in particular, you can read those programs and understand what they do.

IMO This assumes that one views programming as more than just a job/career, but not everyone does so.

> Living in a reality where everything is a black box, doing its thing as if by magic, leaves you in a position devoid of control.

For some, this is actually relieving. Sometimes we want to be more ignorant, sometimes it makes us happier.

That's the way the world's been since the integrated circuit was first developed, for better or worse.

> What happens when you don't understand them anymore?

The chilling bit is that the machines are doing just fine on the understanding programs front (up to and including decompiling them from machine code).