In fact there was a point in history when computers became outright dimwitted. The idea of a computing machine was conceived with the desire to free the mind from tedious repetitious calculations as they occurred in the preparation of, e.g., astronomic, barometric or trigonometric tables.
Computers excel in such tasks.
Even the early devices were finite memory approximations of computation universal machines. This universality led to many new directions of application. Whether the mode of operation of the common computer is the most suitable for these new applications has, however, been left aside. The all-purpose character of the computer together with the steady advancement on limits of memory space and CPU time shielded the underlying computing concept from challenge. Accordingly the technological progress focused on quantitative improvements.