> I think as long as someone grasps the basics of high school math and has a decent working memory, they should be able to learn how to calculate anything precisely given that you break it down into simple steps. If you don't know how to do that, you have no clue what you're doing.
Well, yes, if the only goal is computation. It doesn't take many instructions at all to be Turing-complete, and then you can compute everything a Turing machine can, which is lots of things.
That said, being able to calculate something can be very meaningless. You can try to do AES[1] by hand, if you'd like; it would be frustrating and very time-consuming, and then at the end of it you'll have gained effectively no understanding of its design or structure.
Using AES as a case study as well, one could explain the basic idea of encryption to a layman without too many troubles, but I can't imagine trying to explain anything about its operation or design to a layperson in a way that would make any sense at all.
Well, yes, if the only goal is computation. It doesn't take many instructions at all to be Turing-complete, and then you can compute everything a Turing machine can, which is lots of things.
That said, being able to calculate something can be very meaningless. You can try to do AES[1] by hand, if you'd like; it would be frustrating and very time-consuming, and then at the end of it you'll have gained effectively no understanding of its design or structure.
Using AES as a case study as well, one could explain the basic idea of encryption to a layman without too many troubles, but I can't imagine trying to explain anything about its operation or design to a layperson in a way that would make any sense at all.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard#D...