Indeed. Try telling a group of college students that workable fax machines have been in use for over a hundred years, as I did a while back. Several of them all but called me a liar. "How did they digitize the signal?" one of them demanded. Similarly, it is hard for young people to conceive of things like the SR-71 or the first Moon rockets being designed without what we would consider substantial computing power. The accuracy of 19th century navigators, equipped only with mechanical chronometers, a sextant, and some astronomical tables, would seem like some kind of witchcraft to the present generation. This kind of ignorance could well explain the popularity of nutball theories about all modern technology being borrowed from UFOs or recovered from ancient Atlantis.
Some of the older guys at work and I have had conversations along this line.
I read some of the report of the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
That whole project was paper and pencil, careful planning and thinking, etc. And within cost and under budget. The sections of pipe were manufactured back east, then shipped to the aqueduct project, and all the pipe lengths and rivet holes lined up — just one of the amazing features.
You can download the report here. Over 300 pages, but it has pictures.
http://books.google.com/books?id=7yIWAAAAYAAJ