The Promise and Peril of 'Smart' Keyboards

For 136 years, then, typing in English has meant making certain
neurological associations. Words exist in our minds and on our tongues,
but they also live in our hands and fingers. Anyone who types envisions
and feels words in space, and for English speakers who use technology,
this space is defined by the qwerty keyboard. Who knows what qwerty has
done to the language — even to modes of thought — by attaching meaning
to certain constellations? Deep in our typist-minds, G and H are
centrally located and somehow siblings; X and Z are southwestern
outliers; and Q is always followed by . . . W.

But maybe qwerty is finally on its way out. Virginia Heffernian, New York Times