No one told them what to expect, but the machine was coming.

Dozens were laid off in NASA's transition from human to digital computing.

Because the machine could calculate, generalists were expendable. But it could not formulate. So, those who embraced the change (learned to program), knew the domain (orbital mechanics), and could verify the results became indispensable.

Now it's our turn as Rubyists: to embrace change, to leverage our expertise, and to verify the results. That's how we become indispensable.