As someone who primarily works with computers in industrial machinery, this doesn't seem all that fanciful. What breaks the metaphor for me however is the 'com

As someone who primarily works with computers in industrial machinery, this doesn't seem all that fanciful. What breaks the metaphor for me however is the 'computers have no practical use in society' line. Medicine, modern precision manufacturing and transportation have radically changed the quality of life for billions. Without the development of global timekeeping, communications and computing (mainframes at least) life would be much nastier and shorter for many. Does the inversion also come with all of that baggage?