TALKING POINTS

- Automation is older than electronics.
- Not every automaton is a computer; precise categories make the story better.
- Cams are a wonderful example of shape becoming instruction.
- Pinned drums make sequence visible as hardware.
- Punched media separates the instructions from the machine.
- Babbage pushed automatic calculation toward programmable architecture.
- Modern software hides instructions in electrical state; clockwork made them
  physically visible.
- A C128 is a great endpoint for the story because BASIC lets you watch a home
  computer execute your instructions immediately.
- "Different technology, same wonderfully nerdy idea" is the emotional thesis.