You know how people talk about the ‘good old days’? This is what they’re talking about. I would argue that while it’s an amazing bit of engineering, it’s got nothing on our systems today that have over a billion transistors on something the size of your thumbnail.
We needed the ‘good old days’ to get where we are, but I definitely don’t want to go back!
http://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html