Like with Florida Man a lot of that is simply due to Florida's more lax reporting standards. It's less that Florida law enforcement are exceptionally worse and more that they're the sample that is most transparently on display.
And what I mean is that prior to the mid 1900s the etymology didn't exist to cause that confusion of terms. Neither Babbage's machines nor prior adding engines were called computers or calculators. They were 'machines' or 'engines'.
Babbage's machines were novel in that they could do multiple types of operations, but 'mechanical calculators' and counting machines were ~200 years old. Other mathematical tools like the abacus are obviously far older. They were not novel enough to cause confusion in anyone with even passing interest.
But there will always be people who just assume 'magic', and/or "it works like I want it to".
"Computer" meaning a mechanical/electro-mechanical/electrical machine wasn't used until around after WWII.
Babbag's difference/analytical engines weren't confusing because people called them a computer, they didn't.
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Charles Babbage
If you give any computer, human or machine, random numbers, it will not give you "correct answers".
It's possible Babbage lacked the social skills to detect sarcasm. We also have several high profile cases of people just trusting LLMs to file legal briefs and official government 'studies' because the LLM "said it was real".
There's a famous quote from Charles Babbage when he presented his difference engine (gear based calculator) and someone asking "if you put in the wrong figures, will the correct ones be output" and Babbage not understanding how someone can so thoroughly misunderstand that the machine is, just a machine.
People are people, the main thing that's changed since the Cuneiform copper customer complaint is our materials science and networking ability. Most things that people interact with every day, most people just assume work like it appears to on the surface.
And nothing other than a person can do math problems or talk back to you. So people assume that means intelligence.
Maybe maybe not. Camo is just about playing the odds, nothing works from every angle or circumstance. If tires on wings means 5% more planes survive it's probably worth it.
That's what config files are for. It would be a nightmare to hardcode weight and balance and have to recompile the HUD every time you change the loadout or refuel the plane.
Most code, algorithms, etc are not any more sensitive than the concept of desks and file cabinets. No, guidance programs for missiles probably shouldn't be put on GitHub, but there's a reason RSA and other encryption algorithms were open sourced. It's better to have more eyes looking for inefficiencies, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities than to just assume it's good because no-one on the team responsible is smart/engaged enough to find them.
A lot of functionality can be decoupled from anything that needs to be classified. A HUD is a HUD and no one should be hard coding in performance characteristics of the F-35 into it. I've also worked on government projects and holy crap does the code quality vary wildly, even before you get into "it's still working so deal with the problems, it doesn't have the budget for updates".
Using 'off the shelf' parts/code can save significant time and money. There's a reason subs use xbox controllers. Government websites and data interfaces at the very least should have the audit-ability that open source provides.
The "magnetic forces do no work" thing is maddening.
The guy who is 'the guy' for that level of physics textbooks just happens to be determined to prove a non-quantum mechanics based explanation of magnetism so the book is written from that perspective without actually saying it. Of course.
I think it would be interesting to have some kind of global archive. Even if descendants don't care "now" has the potential to be the beginning of the best documented era in history. Historians would kill for photographs by random average people from any other time.
A lot of people thought that that's what the Internet would be, but that's obviously not the case. And I know the "right to be forgotten" is a thing, and deservedly so, but at some point you're throwing out the wine with the amphora.
Some of that's cultural momentum right? Like I don't know how many pickles it takes to make a Peck of Pickles despite hours singing about it as a kid. There's not a lot of reason sans-nostalgia to read an analog clock or drive a manual car. (I love my manual, but they're not getting any less niche with EVs on the way.)
And everyone's going to learn something the first time, some time. But it is just nuts that for some people that is apparently after getting a job with a Bachelor's, somehow. So much time, money, and energy was spent in the 90s/00s having computer classes in schools and now so much of it has been cut because the people in charge are so out of touch that watching youtube on a device designed to be easily usable is indistinguishable from "technical skills".
Very much recommend Dan Olson over Netflix's Flat Earth documentary. Behind the Curve is much more about having a Curb Your Enthusiasm ending and going "look how silly these people are" than any attempt at understanding motivation or background.
Also he makes an amazing shot of a lake demonstrating curvature and explains how / why, including having a separate video about it and how to do so yourself.
Every vehicle doesn't need to do everything. Otherwise we'd all buy turbocharged Hummers with a trailer for extra fuel. It'd be nice to have some middle ground between a smartcar that confined to surface streets and something you'd take a roadtrip in. A worst-case ~150-200 mile range is enough for a boatload of people to commute 50 miles and not have to worry. If you can plug it in overnight, even on just 120v, charging speed is a negligible concern.
I think a lot of range anxiety is weird. A lot of gas cars from the 80s/90s/00s have ~300/400 mile range per tank, but that's because you don't want to go to a gas station every day. If you could just trickle in gas overnight they could've had much smaller tanks too.
Like with Florida Man a lot of that is simply due to Florida's more lax reporting standards. It's less that Florida law enforcement are exceptionally worse and more that they're the sample that is most transparently on display.
Which is worrisome.