“I etch a pattern of geometric shapes onto a stone. To the uninitiated, the
shapes look mysterious and complex, but I know that when arranged
correctly they will give the stone a special power, enabling it to respond to
incantations in a language no human being has ever spoken. ...Yet my work involves no witchcraft. The stone
is a wafer of silicon, and the incantations are software. The patterns etched on
the chip and the programs that instruct the computer may look complicated
and mysterious, but they are generated according to a few basic principles
that are easily explained.”