Quisiera as "to wish for"

[Nfqufktc]

¡Hola!

I would appreciate it if you could comment on my reasoning with regard to the following sentence:

This text is about a person who's been explained by a friend of his how to use computers.
Below is the sentence I am interested in:

The forms in red stand for my selections.

I have managed to figure out “hubieran inventado” because I assumed that there had to be a point in the past when the computer was invented (a contrary-to-fact statement in the past). As regards “fuera”, I believe it refers to a contrary-to-fact statement in the present.
The stumbling block is “quisiera”. I understand that it means kind of “I still wish”. I would venture a guess that “fuera” (imp.subj) precludes using “quero” (pres.) but I am failing to give my guess the grammatical background to validate it.

I would translate the passage as:
Although I have learnt a lot since then (the day my friend explained computers to me), I still wish that everything were as simple as before the time the computer had been invented.

Thank you.

[aleCcowaN]

Aunque he aprendido mucho desde entonces, todavía quisiera que todo fuera tan sencillo como antes de que se inventaran las computadoras.

Todavía quiero que todo sea tan sencillo... is incorrect because it supposes that to be feasable. It ain't. Quisiera is used because it is not querer but lo querido what is counterfactual. Fuera just plays along (en tiempo y aspecto)

Se hubieran inventado las computadoras sounds hypothetical. Inventaran is the right answer. It doesn't matter when the computers were invented. What matters is the fact they were invented and are here to stay.

I think it'd be
.
Even though I've learnt a lot since those days [when my friend first explained computers to me], I still wish things were as simple as they were before the invention of the computer

but a native English speaker will do better.

[poli]

That's about right Alec. On the American side of the Atlantic we prefer to use learned over learnt, but both are certainly acceptable.

[Nfqufktc]

Thank you all.

[aleCcowaN]

Thank you, poli!

A quick comment, Nfqufktc. I realized that when you said "hubieran inventado" (subjunctive) you probably meant "hubieron inventado" (indicative). This is the pretérito anterior which is used when a past action immediately precedes another past action, for instance "y una vez que hubo recuperado el conocimiento, el médico comenzó a darle instrucciones para examinar si había habido daño neurológico". It's extremely formal and in everyday usage recuperó would have been good enough.

This tense wouldn't have made sense in the context of your phrase, as simpler times precede the invention of computers instead.

[poli]

incidentally, the word learned, when pronounced with two syllables, is a adjective meaning someone who is educated especially in a specific field.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by poli

incidentally, the word learned, when pronounced with two syllables, is a adjective meaning someone who is educated especially in a specific field.

I know the term but I was always reluctant to use it because the equivalent term in Spanish, leído, is very low register, almost boorish.

Cuando alguien decía de otro "es muy leído", mi madre comentaba por lo bajo "es muy leído y escribido*". Y si decían, como hacen muchos, "es muy léido*", ella comentaba "es muy léido* y escríbido*"