A Peek Under the Hood, by Francis X. Maier

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing, November 5, 2025

Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of  True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church.

I’ve used personal computers for work and play since 1982.  My first PC was a Kaypro II.  The Kaypro was a high-tech marvel back then, and as a bonus, it was (in theory) “transportable.”  Sturdy and reliable, it had the user-friendly mobility of a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile.  I loved that machine.  It was text-based only – ghost-white letters glimmering on a tiny dark screen, with no consoling graphics – but it got the job of word processing, formerly known as writing, done.

Alas, love in the technosphere is fleeting.  Along came the GUI, the “graphical user interface,” and I switched to Apple and Windows computers.  Why, you ask?  Isn’t it obvious?  My Kaypro’s gray frumpiness, like a paramour who’s suddenly developed warts, couldn’t compete with their sexy young operating systems.  All those desperate hours of writer’s block, staring into an empty black screen without a creative thought in my noggin, could now be filled, in a blaze of rainbow color, with Pac-Man. …