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the computer industry died when it stopped making computers with a real physical presence. you can talk down to an iphone all you like but you can't talk down to an ibm mainframe. it demands respect
‪asml don't make computers but they do make machines. machines with Presence. have you seen how fucking big one of those euv machines is. it could kill multiple people. you can only stand in awe‬
once upon a time, computers filled rooms. now, computers rest on your fingertip. but what makes the computer? a machine, that fills a room. and like the old computers there is a world market for maybe five of them
@hikari so that’s maybe why we all have innate awe feeling for trains engraved in our subconscious 
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@mary@icosahedron.website
@hikari to be fair, a modern exaflop supercomputer is Big
@hikari Well, now I want a mainframe
@hikari counterpoint: I suspect everyone swore at their mainframes all the time
@hikari This kinda feeling, of a computer that dominates the room with its sheer presence...
It's one of the reasons why my setup has such a big chonky workstation desk in the same colour as my monitors, tower, keyboard, mouse, microphone arm, etc
It's all setup to give this impression that the whole thing, that's the computer, even the parts that are just storage space for any cables and extra drives and controllers not currently plugged in
Why despite this being the biggest room in the house I have left space alongside the rest of the wall to Allow The Machine To Grow, the assumption that in time with more monitors, speakers, peripherals, maybe a second tower rigged into a shared input...The Machine Will Grow
And the rest of the room? A rarely used dining / board gaming table, access to the understairs storage + the kitchen but nothing really of note besides The Machine
This room exists for The Machine, The Computer
I just happen to spend time near The Computer :3