On the one hand I love that people are thinking about how to make algebra more approachable and more usable in everyday life, but on the other hand I fear that it might mess with the learning curve. Once you want to do something that's beyond the capabilities of the scrubbing calculator, you start from zero because nobody's ever told you about algebraic equations and unknowns and you only know how to describe your problem in terms of "connections" and "locked numbers."

Compare this to an application like Calca (http://calca.io/). Calca is more difficult to start with for a mathophobe because, while it will solve your calculations and equations for you, you do have to explicitly define all variables and formulate an equation. But the result is that the learning curve when you graduate from the application is much smoother: you can easily port more complex problems to a programming language or pen-and-paper math. Your existing knowledge doesn't suddenly become void.