Introduction

Abstract

From the age of sixteen we can own machines which are physically much more powerful than we are. A Victorian engine driver would have been quite shocked and alarmed at the way young people can now afford to buy, and are allowed to drive, weird conveyances that are more convenient and efficient than his. His engine was far too complex and expensive for amateurs. To some extent, the older generation of computer users look upon the mass market in home computers with the same shocked alarm as the Victorian engine driver would have viewed the moped — even to the extent of denying that the new machine was a real vehicle at all.