Starting From Space
Mechanical devices are, in the main, constructed linearly. The force is transmitted from one component part to the next, wherefore an appropriate connection has to exist.
With computers, things are fundamentally different: the activity is allowed to make almost unlimited jumps. It is conducted and controlled by the program, to be sure, but the program itself can pick from an embarrassment of riches. For that very reason it is capable of being so exact, of reacting on even the finest nuances, of searching its way past all obstacles.
Each particular way may pretty well be called “linear” — its base, however, is not linear, but rather spatial.