Another view of computer literacy
Here's Dylan Evans, a psychologist, arguing that in the future it will be necessary for average folks to actually understand something about how computers work and a bit of coding, and that operating systems that make it visible and transparent are to be preferred to those that try to hide the guts behind a facade of user-friendliness. Interesting.
Thanks to Tim Bray for pointing this one out.
His is an interesting perspective. Computer literacy and knowing how to code "at least in some computer language" are two different things though. I disagree that people want more transparency between interface and code. Users want systems that empower them to get the things done that need getting done - they don't necessarily want or need to know how the internals of those systems operate.
His argument is similar to someone near the turn of the century claiming that one would need to understand how an internal combustion engine works in order to effectively use a car.