>I mean, isn't that just the marvel of abstraction? I can show you how it works, on a basic level: See, it goes around like this. This connects here. That switch opens. This moves back, and that's the behavior that we're looking for. Easy.
>Why is it that when that same thing happens a hundred times a second, the emergent behavior suddenly becomes mind-boggling? It's just the same thing, faster.
I don't think it's a red herring at all. Going faster is more complex, more interesting. A spark plug ignites an air/fuel mixtures, it pushes a piston, which pushes a connecting rod, which turns a crank. That's easy -- once. At 3000 RPM that's 50 times a second, that's not easy, that's complex. It requires timing.
I've hand packed fuel into a canister, ignited it, it goes boom, it moves metal. That's easy. But at 50 times a second it take precision. The spark timing from the distributor has to be right, the crank is connected via timing belt to the camshafts that control the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves. That timing has to be right. There's a computer constantly monitors the O2 content of the exhaust gases, so it can better control the air/fuel mixture. There's another sensor to listen for knocking caused by too little air, so it can retard the spark timing to compensate.
All this happens 50 times a second. It's far more amazing than me lighting a fuse and watching something go boom.
