Part 2/16:
Fowler boldly states that AI represents the biggest technological upheaval of his career. When reflecting on transformative moments in software history, he draws a parallel to the monumental shift from assembly language to early high-level languages like FORTRAN and COBOL. That transition was no mere change in syntax; it fundamentally altered how developers thought about programming, moving from hardware-specific, deterministic environments to abstracted, non-deterministic systems.
Now, with AI, the landscape is shifting again—this time from environments driven by deterministic logic and explicit instructions to environments that are inherently non-deterministic. This change not only affects the tools we use but also our core understanding of how software operates and evolves.