Why the software industry needs a lot of regulation

Software engineers currently lack the accountability that structural engineers face, despite code increasingly affecting public safety through autonomous systems, AI in critical infrastructure, and military applications. The author argues regulation is necessary given the documented harm from software failures, but faces practical barriers including the ease of entry to the field, code's borderless nature, software's iterative development process, and executives' ability to override engineer safety concerns. Establishing meaningful regulation would require addressing these structural challenges rather than simply applying traditional engineering licensing models.