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You've got it backwards. In 1982 only the people who could write basic programs like this would put in the enormous investment of time and money to become compu

You've got it backwards. In 1982 only the people who could write basic programs like this would put in the enormous investment of time and money to become computer users. The fact that the electronics industry has managed to make it's products so much cheaper and so much easier to use that even (e.g.) the illiterate and innumerate can usefully enjoy them is a big triumph.

philwelch 17y ago
And in the process, much of the promise has been lost. I suppose it should be no surprise--television was hailed at its invention as a medium for education and culture even though within years it degenerated into an endless stream of fixed quiz shows and formulaic sitcoms. And now personal computers are for most people more of a distraction and an impediment to creativity than they are any help. Maybe it's right to be cynical--new technology can't reach a mass market without turning into just another form of television, because the mass of people won't create no matter what. I just wish that making computers accessible to more people meant giving more people the creative potential that this guy had in 1982, rather than just giving them another television with 500 channels of cute kitty pictures with amusing subtitles.