Output Devices, Computation, and the Future of Mathematical Crafts

As I write this sentence, I am glancing over at the color printer sitting beside my screen. In the popular jargon of the computer industry, that printer is called a "peripheral"—which, upon reflection, is a rather odd way to describe it. What, precisely, is it peripheral to? If the ultimate goal of my activity is to produce a physical artifact, then one would have to conclude that the printer is a central—maybe the central—technological device in sight. Possibly, the designation of the printer as a peripheral device (and for that matter, the similar designation of the screen, keyboard, and scanner also on the desk) derives from a metaphor that has acted as a leitmotif in the literature of computer architecture since the days of EDVAC—namely, the metaphor of the central processing unit as a “brain,” equipped with an internal memory, and directing the actions of the various surrounding limbs and senses that interact with the physical world.