[pclmulqdq]

I work with FPGAs and embedded systems occasionally, and you have no idea how amazingly watertight the phone/desktop/server CPU abstraction is in comparison to what you get the moment you do something slightly weird. A combination of the chips, the firmware, and the OS does so much work to give you the abstraction of "machine runs code and it just works."

[hiAndrewQuinn]

There's a paper from the 1990s of someone trying to do neural net-type things to construct an FPGA, and it gets really out there, like 'this gate isn't actually connected to anything but if we change anything about it the laws of electromagnetism cause the whole thing to stop working' weird. FPGAs are fascinating little dudes, esp in domains like HFT where their speed directly translates into dollars, but I totally believe you here.

[altermark]

https://www.damninteresting.com/on-the-origin-of-circuits/