People’s relation to tech has not changed:
On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage
"HA! That's the wrong answer! The correct answer is forty-two!"
"No it ain't," said Rabbit. "Seven times six is forty-two. Y-you asked what was seven times nine."
"You did," said Colonel Peter A. Walter.
"That's rubbish. I wanted to hear the other answer."
Colonel Walter put his hands over Rabbit's mouth before the unfinished automaton could address the Senator as a 'dummins'. "Sadly, sir," he said, "the babbage engines that make their brains are not yet capable of telepathy. And neither are people. If you ask a child to multiply seven by nine, you would still get sixty-three."
Rabbit pulled free anyway. "What k-kinda dummins expects the right answer outta the wrong question, Pappy?"
Colonel Walter rolled his eyes and sighed. So much for appealing for a grant. It was such a pity that The Spine was such a fretful thing. He'd be perfect for PR without that one, nigh-fatal flaw.