But our minds were limited. Our central nervous system left us behind; it stopped evolving while we raced ahead with ever more complex uses of symbols. We had trouble remembering long symbol strings — storing the content of sacred texts in a single brain was an extraordinary skill of exceptional individuals. And we had difficulties performing even simple arithmetic operations in our heads and extracting cube roots. The invention of writing and, later, of the printing press went towards supplementing and expanding the power of our brains. But while that was good for storing, reproducing, and sharing symbol strings; it still fell short when combining, manipulating strings, and calculating.
The infinitely flexible symbol manipulation machine arose when the modern computer was born in the forties.
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Original: https://toots.dgplug.org/@jason/110971860881653698