One possibility is visual languages that emphasize mistake proofing, interchangeable parts, and logic visualization over expressiveness. I’ve noticed an increasing number and use of visual languages (Blockly, Unreal Blueprints, NoFlo, WebGME). These are typically criticized as too limited for real programming, but seem to be climbing the S-curve.
A more likely near-term possibility is continued adoption of systems that emphasize package management, which values reuse of proven code over ability to solve problems from scratch. It seems like the language package managers are a big draw in Python & NodeJS. Maybe this trend moves even farther toward stuff like IFTT, where most people working with code are really chaining together applets.
We’re also seemingly headed toward the Star Trek TNG computer where humans query a computer with voice commands and work with it to solve problems.
The rest of my life will do fine.
I'm sure you're right, but just for fun I'll make some counter-arguments.
All technologies follow an S-curve in their 'bang for buck' life cycle. Initial improvement and return on investment ramps up slowly, then it hits a middle era where all the low hanging fruit get picked for massive returns, then it enters a third stage where most of the easy benefits have been reaped and further improvement is incremental.
We see this with the internal combustion engine, jet engines, nuclear power, all sorts of thing. Eventually another technology might come along that supplants the old technology for many or most use cases.
The question I'm pondering is, are languages technologies in this respect, or are programming languages in general a technology? If the former then Python will top out in the benefits it provides and will almost certainly be supplanted by a successor. If the latter, maybe Python is near the top of the development curve (along with many other modern languages) and further improvements will be too incremental to lead to anything supplanting it?
But if that is the case, what technology might supplant programming languages?