[zdw]

We already have this era right now. It's called the "Our computer classes are typing and learning to use MS Office" era.

Nobody really learned how to do anything complex on the computer. CLI's are scary. Programming is hard.

As a result, most computer users, many of whom are very intelligent people who would easily be capable of basic programming and understanding unix pipes and similar are never are exposed to it, and thus it's a foreign language.

Don't blame the iPad. Blame GUI software and the illusion of ease hiding complexity for where we're at.