> The general public has no interest in "General Purpose Computing". But they do have an interest in their own well-being, and the well-being of society. I thi

> The general public has no interest in "General Purpose Computing". But they do have an interest in their own well-being, and the well-being of society. I think the author's point is that widespread access to general purpose computing is a good thing for society in general, and that it will be a bad thing if access to general purpose computing disappears. The problems I see are (painting with a large brush) are that in general: - the public doesn't realize what a gift general purpose programming languages are, how much power they have to solve problems, and how much fun they can be - the public doesn't care to give children access to these systems who might otherwise grow up learning and appreciating them - the public doesn't understand that the ability to read and write code constitutes a literacy of its own and can profoundly impact how one thinks in a positive way But these problems are close corollaries of other problems with society in general: people don't read good books like they ought, people don't learn musical instruments or other skills as often as they should, and many people are forced to work so hard to pay for basic necessities that spending any time on productive leisure (what luminaries called "improving oneself" in prior centuries) is effectively impossible.