You probably can

Do they both have Thunderbolt ports? Windows, Mac, or Linux? Wired or wireless networking?

If they both have thunderbolt 3/4 and you have a cable you can connect both to the cable and use Thunderbolt networking. MSI has a pretty good how to

Otherwise:

• Transfer over network (buy usb ethernet adapter if necessary $10-15 on amazon)
• Buy USB transfer cable and use it to transfer
• Remove HD from old laptop, buy compatible external HD enclosure, put it in external HD enclosure and connect it to new laptop
• Copy files from old laptop to existing external drive, then connect external drive to new laptop

Photonic tensor CPUs and analogue iterative machines show a lot of promise. However I think human assisted AI or even AI alone are more likely to take over Assembly level programming before photonic computing has that much of an impact

Is 22 too old to start…

Nope.

Am a heck of a lot older…and have gone blind. I’m still learning things all the time. If it is firing your curiosity it is worth giving a shot. By all means go for it!

…and thank you for the post. You have convinced me to try something new myself. Enjoy!