[probizzle]

Software engineering is nowhere if you can't make the software do anything.

But, to answer your question, first let me say they are two sides to a coin.
Second, i think the possibilities sofware side are increasing. We now have the ability to make our software do exciting things (like high schoolers with the help of mentors making a robot cap a tetra with a green band). And we have the ability to get electronics (ie sensors) at affordable prices and so on so we CAN do fabulous things with programming.
These things combined add the possibility of giving machines a lot more autonomy than they currently have. And I think this will be an increasing trend in the future, finding more and more machines with more and more autonomy. More autonomy = more programming.