Evolving Electronics

People ask me sometimes what has changed about electronics. In my youth, it was early days for semiconductor devices. In my lifetime, one has seen almost the entire history of semiconductor electronics. In the beginning, the simplest things were hard to create. Say, a gently throbbing light, as one sees on computers today. Today, the discrete components haven't changed. The logic gates haven't changed. Not much. Some interesting ICs have come along. The biggest change is surely the many micro-controllers. At first, publishers chose their micro-controller. For instance, EPE magazine used PICs. But now, there is micro-controller pluralism. One may find several micro-controllers, all different, in the same edition of a magazine. OBSERVATION: Which is more about programming than electronics. Often, too, micro-controllers are pre-programmed. There is less innovation using the fundamental elements of electronics. I miss that.