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As a software professional (who started with BASIC, since that was mostly all there was, but moved to assembler, Pascal, C, as soon as I could get my hands on them), I agree with other posters here: "BASIC is gone, and good riddance" (geophile).
I also echo the sentiment that Python, Ruby, even PHP and JavaScript are of greater pedagogical value. There is not a high barrier to entry, although it superficially "seems" so, and dwelling on this point indicates the shallowness of Brin's analysis.
I don't think the problem is in access to technology; the problem - again, other posters got here first - is in attitudes to learning "from the ground up". I've found many adult professionals who were simply uninterested in what makes the infrastructure tick - that their lifestyle and jobs depended on. That's fine; it just guarantees an ecological niche for the geeks. I know many of them, and I share many geek traits.
If Brin's son is "tantalised", then suggest he builds a web site (for example). After learning static markup he'll quickly get the hang of PHP.
If he's as "tantalised" as I was, he'll be programming in Xlib or Cocoa or GTK within a year.
Parents - even geek parents like me - should remember that it's quite possible their child isn't one of them, and doesn't need to understand the machine at the machine code level. Maybe they only want to check their mail, reliably and securely message their friends, draw in Photoshop, or edit their band's demo reel in iMovie.
Nobody is surprised when an assembly programmer doesn't want to drop down to soldering TTL circuits. Nobody is surprised when a C programmer balks at writing assembler. Nobody is surprised when a SQL DBA draws the line at writing Perl. The temptation to micromanage the machine is too often exercised in the commercial environments I see. Let kids be exposed to HLLs and VHLLs and good application user interfaces. Let them understand a web site from the "does it afford the user" perspective rather than worrying about counting cycles and microsecond latencies. There is too little attention to human-computer interface and too much "use C dude, Ruby is too slow".
The true impediment to computing civilisation is Microsoft. Step number one, buy your son/daughter an iMac G5 and bring them into the 21st century - or at least show them some of the magnificent alternatives - and you'll give them an intellectual and vocational independence worth having. If nothing else, they'll learn that there's more to computing life than crashes, viruses and cold, dead, closed minds.
To Jim Rootham: The emulator you're looking for is simh (http://simh.trailing-edge.com/).
