@jimmyhmiller @spiralganglion in the Computer Is a Feeling episode, there's mention of what "personal" meant when talking about "personal computers", and I think that back in the 1970s when the term was coined, that it did in fact mean personal in the sense mentioned
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@jimmyhmiller @spiralganglion i would contrast this with the other term used at the term -- microcomputer/micro -- which was explicitly just about size/capability/cost/etc.
there were all these discussions about how the new micros could finally -- FINALLY! -- make computers _personal_ because they could be yours, and be imbued with your desires and will and intentions and dreams
@jimmyhmiller @spiralganglion stuff from Ted Nelson (both the big Computer Lib/Dream Machines duology, and The Home Computer Revolution), the Homebrew Computer Club, the People's Computer Company
they were drenched in this vision of the computer as not just a device, but as an extension of your self
@jimmyhmiller @spiralganglion i think reading "personal" in the same sense that one talks about "personal" journals vs. say scientific journals
its a place you keep your personal, private, intimate thoughts, a thing imbued with a part of you by your hand and mind. not merely owned and operated by you, but transformed by you in a way that only you can transform it
@jimmyhmiller @spiralganglion like a sweater given to you by a loved one, that which, when lost, can't really be replaced by simply buying another one, because this other one wasn't given you by the loved one, wasn't acquired with the intentions and thoughts of that loved one, didn't go through life with you like the other one did. it may be functionally identical but its not the same one
