We've (as a society, probably not many people in this thread) somewhat shifted away from using a particular interface pattern, which is different than forgettin

We've (as a society, probably not many people in this thread) somewhat shifted away from using a particular interface pattern, which is different than forgetting how to use computers. That's not too big of a deal; usage changes. The thing that makes me feel less confident about the future is that it seems like fewer even people want to know how computers work, even though they mediate their lives through them. There was a generation or two of people who had the opportunity to understand computers, because they were cheap enough to get access to them, and they were open enough (in every sense) to actually be tinkered with. I don't necessarily believe we're living through a civilization-wide decline of the post-Western Roman Empire variety, because I'm not even sure what that means in a globally connected world. But there are localized areas and domains where it seems like it is, just like there are certain domains where it may seem like the opposite is happening.