I'm finally reading The Apple II Age. I am so relieved to have finally found a book that understands that the "evil computer" trope is not intentionally secret ableist dogwhistles, but rather rooted in that computers used to be completely inaccessible. The "personal computer" was unfathomable at this point. And a lot of people associated computers primarily with the military! You have to think of it like Boston Dynamics.

This was also my first time learning that HAL, the beginning of a long game of telephone, was inspired by a specific incident - CBS using the UNIVAC to predict the outcome of an election - so for many it must have been this big, terrifying magical box that seems to have your healthcare and standards of living in its hands. If that was my first exposure to computers I wouldn't have cared much for it either.

An important thing here is that computers were NOT always daily necessities or accessibility aids, they were overwhelmingly toys for wealthy white men -- for a very long time.

It is SO refreshing to read a book that understands a lot of people's apprehensions about computers are based in matters of computers being made by classists.