The conclusion that successful computer programming will eventually require a reasonable amount of scientific education of a rather mathematical nature is not too welcome among the guild members: they tend to deny it and to create a climate in which “bringing the computer back to the ordinary man” is accepted as a laudable goal, and in which the feasibility of doing so is postulated, rather than argued. (This is understandable, because its infeasibility is much easier to argue.) They create a climate in which funds are available for all sorts of artificial intelligence projects in which it is proposed that the machine will take over all the difficult stuff so that the user can remain uneducated. I must warn you not to interpret the fact that such projects are sponsored as an indication that they make sense: the fact of their being sponsored is more indicative for the political climate in which this happens.
– Dijkstra, a few decades ago, though you wouldn’t know it
Abacus Noir 