It's funny, but I am also serious. Historically speaking, the idea that computational devices could have internal stored programs that could be used to drive any function, rather than humans putting in effort every time to program, had to invented.
Yeah but our standards for computers are higher nowadays.
I covered analog computers in school, which as I recall consisted of integrating blocks made with linear circuits. You combine them up as needed to simulate systems of linear differential equations. There was still a degree of programmability in that sense.
