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I probably should have read Computer Power and Human Reason years ago, when all this hype really started getting going. Honestly I should probably have read it in college when I was first getting into programming! But the next best time is now, so I borrowed: my mom's inscribed copy a few months ago (which to be fair she has also never read) and got started. A lot of the first few chapters is fairly straightforward for anyone who has a basic grounding in computer science. Weizenbaum[1] is walking an odd line where he's trying to explain concepts like "turing machines" and "assembly languages" to a lay audience without sacrificing either rigor or a relatively academic tone. I'm curious how well this works for someone who genuinely has no prior exposure to this material; to me, all of this is review of the basics of the field, and so ended up feeling a little boring. But then I got to this section which blew my socks clean off my feet (emphasis mine): The idea that a person can write a…