I studied computing at AS level in the UK (16-17 years old). I learned about: computer components (disks, memory, cpu), binary, ASCII, assembly and machine code. We programmed in Turbo Pascal. I then spent ten years doing non-computer things until I came back to a masters. I was one of the top students in my masters because i didn't need help with fundamentals. The other top student had previously made contributions to the linux kernel (even though he was a philosophy grad...).

The argument for having autonomous LLMs/Agents often ends up as "none of us need to know about assembly, why do i need to know about the code?".

I cringe every time I see this argument.