File Under Ironic

Max Palevsky, described as a baron of the early computer industry who helped found the giant chip maker Intel Corp., died on May 5 at 85. Here are the last three sentences in the nearly 1,800 word obituary that ran in the Los Angeles Times:

The man who had played a major role in creating today's computer-obsessed society also confessed that he no longer had much interest in technology. In fact, he had begun to disparage the revolution he helped spawn, believing that computers and the Internet had become "substitutes for interaction with the real world."

"I haven't touched a computer, watched TV or used a credit card in 15 years. I am," he told the Times in 2001, "a Luddite."

Palevsky seemed to have used both sides of his brain -- he majored in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago -- which could have predisposed him to such musings. Anyone who has tried to interrupt a teenager in mid-text might come to the same conclusion.