Well, certainly, I'm not shocked they'd hold some parallel niches. And I'll cop to the fact that the biggest technological advances tend to be during times of war.

[He bobs his head, equivocating a little nonetheless.]

But computers do a lot more than just wage war, by a long shot. They're very ubiquitous back home.

Moreover, [and here he drawls with some half-serious tartness,] computers are entirely a human invention, the mechanics of which are well understood by any who care to sit down and learn them. I've never met a brand of magic half so egalitarian or transparent.