Last night, while lying in my pod meditating I began thinking about the following scenario:
I'll imagine what my computer might look like to the more educated and mentally-agile members of past societies.
On my desk I have:
The computer proper (Apple PowerMac G4)
Two monitors (Sony 17", Apple 17")
A keyboard (MacAlly iKey)
A mouse (Logitech 2-button wheel mouse)
Headphones
A USB floppy drive
A flatbed scanner
This setup will look familiar to someone familiar with the latest high-tech toys, all the way back to the 1970's, when interactive computing started getting common. With one exception: the mouse, which only started getting common after the mid-1980's. What's displayed would look at least half-familiar to someone familiar with GUI's, though fancier and in full color.
But before that?
From the 1950's to the 1970's, the monitors might be mistaken for TV sets -- but their lack of tuning knobs and speakers would seem odd. But they would look much crisper than many TV displays -- especially earlier ones, which were not even in color.
The computer might seem startling -- much, much smaller than the room-filling monstrosities, but much, much more powerful.
The keyboard would be familiar going back to the late 19th century, but it would have people wondering "where is the rest of the typewriter?"
The various cables would also be at least half-familiar until then, even if many of the plugs and sockets would look odd.
Before the late 19th century, my computer setup would be a mystery. Very little text on the computer proper, except for some fine print in the back. On front, an Apple logo, a door for the CD-ROM drive, a slot for the Zip drive, a speaker, and an on-off switch. On each big side, an Apple logo. And a similar shortage of text on the monitors and other peripherals. The keyboard would only be a partial exception, with a letter or some short text on each key.
But I'm sure that it would still be recognizable as writing -- and writing in a familiar alphabet.
Some literate Romans like Julius Caesar or Cicero or Pliny the Elder would still recognize most of the alphabet's capital letters, though they'd scratch their heads over the small letters and a few of the capital letters -- and the numerals.
Some ancient Greek thinkers would find the letters half-familiar, and would wonder what dialect it represented (later Greeks from Roman times to the present would quickly recognize the lettering as the Roman alphabet, however). And I think that literate people unfamiliar with the Greek, Roman, or Cyrillic alphabets might still be able to recognize the text as writing.
And in the absence of literacy, my whole setup would be incomprehensible, even to a priest/priestess or a shaman or a medicine man/woman or a witch doctor.
But if I gave some demonstrations of it, I'd likely provoke oohs and ahs and other expressions of wonder. Someone from a few decades back would likely know what to do with it, but going farther back would require a bit more instruction. Anyone with typewriter skills would have no trouble with the keyboard, though they would have to learn a few things like letting the computer do the text wrapping and only pressing <return> at the end of a paragraph, not at the end of a line.
Someone pre-typewriter may have to learn the keyboard also, but could easily start with hunting and pecking.
How some pre-printing scribe might react would be interesting -- anything from "it would degrade writing from a fine art to mechanical stamping" to "it would make my work so much easier".
Aristotle would likely marvel at how my setup seems like some of his dream come true, like my ability to play sound and music files on my computer. "I swear by Zeus that I had never expected to see such a thing."
Going back further, someone preliterate might be baffled at the writing, but might nevertheless understand a paint program; drawing and painting have been done for over 30,000 years.