But would he have recognised a cigarette-packet-sized device that shows text and pictures and responds to touches as the same class of object as the room-sized mainframes that processed payrolls for corporations and were controlled with punchcards? Without real-time processing, VDU terminals, microcomputers and GUIs to bridge the gap, they’d be essentially two very different things.

Ok, and how many people, outside of those that used them, would ever have any clue what that was? How many regular everyday americans do you think would know what you're talking about, either back then, or today, if you said you work with an "ENIAC"?

I think officermike's point fully still stands.