I wonder if we'll ever hit a critical mass of technical literacy where this kind of misunderstanding largely disappears. Ten years ago I would have said yes. No

I wonder if we'll ever hit a critical mass of technical literacy where this kind of misunderstanding largely disappears. Ten years ago I would have said yes. Now I think the advances in UX/UIs and the appification of everything have insulated the median person from the details. That's good as far as individual products go, but in aggregate might lead to unrealistic expectations. I've heard younger folks ask questions about "why doesn't x just do y" that I previously could only have imagined my very non-technical parents' cohort asking. At least in the 80s, when computers roughly equalled magic for much of the population (looking at you Wargames!), most people didn't really have to interact with it. Their expectations about computers were roughly as important as my expectations about alien life. But I'm afraid that magical thinking about tech will be of greater consequence both individually and societally.