The more I learn about historical technology, the more I see that the complexity of logic built on top of old processes seems to be about equivalent to the complexity of contemporary software systems.

The only thing that seems to be really changing is the technological substrate underneath. It leads me to wonder if manufacturing ability and materials engineering are really what’s driving higher order improvements in technology, not “algorithms” so to speak. Electrical and mechanical engineers of olde otherwise seem to be no less capable of designing complex systems than software engineers.