Ramblemuse Touch Points

In my last post, I’d included a quote by Danny Hillis on the massive increases of different uses of computers brought on by the staggering increases in power coupled with similar decreases in size — specifically, a computer in every doorknob. I was going through some receipts today when I noticed that a book I had bought as a “lie around” for my two boys was by by Hillis, The Pattern on the Stone — a book about how computers function at a conceptual level. A “lie around” is a book left around the house that, if it looks interesting, will sooner or later be picked up and read; not necessarily all in one sitting, but in bits and pieces and repetitively. Such “lie arounds” are part of my family model of informal education. Another wonderful element of this policy has been Larry Gonick’s series of Cartoon Guides to …. As to The Pattern on the Stone, the “stone” is silicon and the pattern the etching and inlays imposed upon it.