Toni Poka is neat, but not very expressive (as the intent. It makes a fun little language to learn though. Engadget (think it was them) did a lengthy write up awhile back. I'd rather learn something mind expanding like Lojban than restrictive like Toki Pona. However, I did read that it can be a useful exercise to come up with phrases to explain a concept/word your language doesn't have. Toki Pona probably doesn't have "computer", but maybe you can represent that with "glowing communications box"?

I'd agree toki pona is unlikely to be as mind-expanding as Lojban, but the kind of creativity that you mention, working within constraints, can be "mind-expanding" too -- just as composing poetry within a specific form, or practicing constrained writing, can be.

Even though there are some fundamental designed-in limitations in toki pona (for example, we don't officially have comparatives, relative clauses, or quotation! you can say "a is a little x and b is very x" or use a kind of formula with "x this: y"), it can be surprising how many things can be expressed reasonably well given the effort.

I chose it because the effort is so low and I wondered what thinking with such limited vocabulary feels like.

Computer might be: ilo sona - device of knowledge

Haha. Glad you were able to translate that.