[foxrider]

People mourn general-purpose computing, because the writing is on the wall for future generations. The living room computer is dead, your average "normie" only has a phone, and maybe a tablet these days. What really opened my eyes to this is how kids I was teaching 3D printing design to were constantly asking if they can use a 3D printer with their phone. Laptops, desktops and servers are becoming more and more niche, and if we don't do anything it dies with our generation (or maybe a generation after that).

[cjs_ac]

I used to be a physics teacher, and very few of my students gave a shit about science. The most popular 'science' content on social media is elephant's toothpaste videos and inspirational quotes photoshopped onto astrophotography. Most people struggle to have a conversation about ideas, they just want to talk about people, and that's perfectly fine.

General-purpose computing was always for nerds, and always will be. There will only ever be a tiny proportion of people who find this stuff interesting enough to actually learn how to engage with it on its own level. Everyone else needs it to be packaged in an idiot-proof way so they can use it to get on with their day.