I still remember the exact moment when they wheeled an Apple II into my grade 1 (1980/1981) class on a TV cart and showed us what a computer was. It was an instant religious conversion and all I could think about from then on.
I'm not sure it's actually been good for me, as I lay here with a chronically inflamed lower back and terrible skills in meatspace; but while it's consumed my life, it has brought prosperity to my family.
IKR? To think as a kid I was more interested in nature, but also electronics and mechanical things but then the computer... everything else was just left behind... Nothing could compare to the fascinating infinite.
Exactly this. That realization that that box of circuits sitting quietly there on the table, waiting for your commands, was in fact an Anything Machine.
For me it was simulations. If you could write down the math for something, you could bring it to life.
I'm not sure it's actually been good for me, as I lay here with a chronically inflamed lower back and terrible skills in meatspace; but while it's consumed my life, it has brought prosperity to my family.
The seduction of the virtual.