Perfect example of how knowing a bit of programming and the basics of what a computer and a program is, is a great idea: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/31/237208/judge-rules-apis-can-not-be-copyrighted A judge with no understanding of programming could have made this an absolute disaster for interoperability, licensing, and basically doing anything on a computer where a big software monopoly already has a vested interest (hint: that is a lot).

In the future, everyone will be interacting with code. A lot of us are going to be interacting with programs that let us tweak settings or maybe even churn out something resembling a finished program or homepage. Maybe we will even interact with honest-to-god coders. To dot any of that at some non-ridiculous level of effeciency, we will have to learn "the first thing about coding". Maybe even the second. We need to code, a bit, in school. The same way we need to "math around" a bit in school, in order to understand basic tenets of math (ie. tax, purchases, loans, engineering, the world). This is absolutely horrifying: "On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. " And it is still going on, in the corridors of economic and political power. And teaching everyone the first couple of things about coding would alleviate it. PS: If you think post means that "everyone should be a programmer", you read it wrong.