Admiring nature and animals doesn't lead to my becoming a biologist, nor drinking beer lead to my founding a brewery. You can appreciate something without having to really understand what is going on beneath the surface. We are just predisposed to an interest in technology, is all.

We can't peek under the hood or tinker with things like decades past.

You can't peek the lid of a PC like you could with an Apple ][. There's no pre-installed BASIC to play with. No schematics. Even most cars are now "no user servicable parts inside" when you lift the hood.