In fact I’ll go further: that’s what all technology’s supposed to do. If it ain’t revealing something, it’s no good.

Hell yeah. And glad to hear you like the freshphotons site. One of my more favorite tumble people.

And as for photography, my sister’s photographer, and she’s often made the point that photography literally means “light writer”. So basically, photography is the ultimate “making the invisible visible”, because it’s capturing a visual perspective and making it sharable.

That’s sort of what I was trying to say, it just came out a bit garbled. I’m not sure /everything/ is a computer, but there are many, many things out there that reveal the wonder behind stuff, and silicon-chip-computers are a wonderful development in this line. To the extent that I’d say that that’s what they’re /for/. In fact I’ll go further: that’s what all technology’s supposed to do. If it ain’t revealing something, it’s no good.

http://freshphotons.tumblr.com/post/364599469/this-illustration-shows-a-cross-section-of-a-small

At its best, science is a calling, a vocation.

I don’t disagree with you, but I was talking more about the invisible made visible, visual metaphors that explain the underlying forces that hold our world together. Currently, we believe in the vocation of science. Previously, they believed in the glory of God. In either case, its something to see these made visible.

But I will disagree that a computer is needed to make any of these. The first could be made using the mathematics behind the physics, and one of the old fashion zoetrope things. The second could be made with magnets, paper, iron filings and ink. The third, well, again, physics and paper. Computers make it easier, and they also help us understand the mathematics behind them, but are not absolutely necessary.

And if a ripple pool is an analogue computer, then so is everything else.

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At its best, science is a calling, a vocation. :)