





                 SO WHAT'S THIS FASCINATION WITH COMPUTERS?  
                                by Sidney Simon



I learned to fly an airplanes at one time in my life.  With a certain flair, 
I did landings and take-offs not necessarily in that order, and I came to 
know enough navigation to be able to do cross-county flying.  I could stall 
and recover, I could fly "under the hood" and not see where I was going (or 
coming) and just with instruments, survive.  Once I even did what they call a 
dead-stick landing.  Those are useful if your engine dies.  You dead-stick it 
or you die.

All of this is told to you not to make me seem impressive but to help raise 
the question: so what's this fascination with computers?






Because, you see, I could take flying or leave it.  Actually, I left it.  
Because, to me, flying was boring.  There was a lot to learn of course, but 
learning it was somehow dull for me.  And from day one, computers have never 
been dull and I can't see anywhere in the future where they will become dull.
Learning about computers has been totally engrossing.  I would have not 
predicted that.

You sit in front of a glowing ersatz television screen, choosing to push your 
fingers around a tool, finding yourself alternately frustrated, tortured, 
filled with despair and occasionally tasting disaster.  This is fun?

Yes, it is.  Among the grandest fun I have known.  And I had my share of fun, 
even if I have only played one computer game in my life.  The fun is the 
learning.

Learning interests me.  I have been a teacher all my life and after some 
thirty-seven years practicing, I am finally getting the hang of it.  During 
all those years, I have struggled to intrigue, excite, even enthrall my 
students with the magic of the content, the wonder of the theories and the 
allure of the acquisition of learning.







My XT clone enthralled, intrigued, excited and captured me in a week.  
Without much charm or grace, it thoroughly enamored me and has made me a 
continued computer addict.

I am almost embarrassed to say no other learning I have ever done has been so 
completely engulfing.  Certainly not learning Spanish, nor calculus, not even 
Piaget's developmental stages.  And worse, I can't seem to figure out what 
this all-devouring appeal for the computer is about. Have you figured it out?  
Has your wife waiting for you to come to bed figured it out?  Have your 
children, when at a time of crisis, they have to wait for you to solve a 
problem (like how to get your printer to print in compressed mode) figured it 
out?  Has anyone figured it out?

Well, here are a few things I have identified as part of what has fascinated, 
mesmerized and occasionally enslaved me to that thing called computer.







                    THE APPEAL OF INSTANT GRATIFICATION

In computers, if you get it right, the computer gives you a precious gift by 
instantly rewarding you with the right answer.  In a world which is 
increasing bewildering, where politics confuse us, where the media uses us, 
where relationships are storm-tossed and careers unpredictably chaotic, what 
a comfort it is knowing $p$g will bring up a prompt that you can believe in 
and that $p$g will do it every time.  Carefully you weigh the alternatives, 
make a decision and results magically appear, the printer dances and 
gratification abides in your heart, instantly.  So it is with everything 
about computers.  If you get it right, the gratification will be instant.  
The first time you make a directory, for example (MD \SALVATION) and it 
works, even if it comes out \SALVATIO, it's instant gratification.  Do you 
remember that thrill?

Do you remember typing something single spaced and then wanting the whole 
document to be double-spaced?  When you hit the right keys the whole thing, 
instantly, was double-spaced. What greater moments of instant gratification 
can there be than that?





                    THE DEPENDABILITY OF PREDICTABILITY

That's the second thing I get from computers - predictability.  Instant 
gratification is nice and sometimes over-poweringly nice, but it is when the 
instant gratification is dependably predictable that computers begin to be 
addictive.  It is comforting because it is predictable. At this level of my 
computerhood, I can insert something into my AUTOEXEC.BAT and know that if I 
did it right, what I inserted will produce a predictable result.  So, instant
gratification and predictability are two factors with which the computer has 
me hypnotized.

                         THE ELEGANCE OF THE SOLUTION

I know I must be simple-minded, but  after almost fifty years on a 
typewriter, I was dazzled and remain dazzled by how the little letters can be 
juggled on a computer.  And it is always with such elegance.  Anyone who 
writes knows what I mean. You arrogantly insert an adjective and watch the 
little letters jump ahead of it in perfect order, never losing a space or a 
comma -- that's elegance.






                  YOU WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF THINGS TO LEARN

Finally, there is one last fascination, nay, mesmerization with this thing 
called computer.   I don't know if that is what fascinates you, but it is 
clearly one of the most enthralling things for me. Flying had some of that 
and so did Spanish, but nothing like the opportunities to learn that a 
computer user is provided.

Can you imagine ever running out of something to learn or try with a 
computer?

So what is the appeal of the computer for you?  Are you captivated by the 
thrill of the instant gratification? Is it the predictability in an otherwise 
unpredictable world that fascinates you? Is it the elegance of solution that 
charms you?  Or is it the fact that you will never run out of things to 
learn?

Reprinted Courtesy of Buffalo IBM PCUG - MICRONEWS
