That is actually the very definition of hyperbole. No, software engineering isn't going to be seriously hampered because Google has to pay for what they knew they stole.
Some terms about API use would likely change in some software agreements. Google would fess up about 8 billion dollars. And not much else would happen.
Software engineering is a vital part of the world and the economy and it will not go away because the law got enforced.
Well I suppose an Oracle victory could be good news for AT&T if they own the copyright to the standard C library and the UNIX/POSIX API.
Then they could demand licenses for any C toolchain as well as any piece of code (libc, Linux) that included libc/UNIX compatible declarations.
This could be highly beneficial to software engineering since it would discourage the use of languages like C and Java, as well as UNIX-like systems. ;-)
Some terms about API use would likely change in some software agreements. Google would fess up about 8 billion dollars. And not much else would happen.
Software engineering is a vital part of the world and the economy and it will not go away because the law got enforced.