[tannerwelsh]

Good catch re: 'late antiquity' -> I should have been a bit more rigorous in my research there.

I like your point about "how little knowledge is a perilous thing?" Completely agree that programming is far from the only important skill. I just generally think that demystifying what is popularly considered to be "esoteric" knowledge is almost always good for a healthy society. The less we know about how the mysterious machines work, the more we fear them and the more trust and power we give to the people who can manipulate them. I think this is hogwash and completely unnecessary since a computer is really just a super-fast filing clerk [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA].