5 ms·

Very much so. More and more i feel that he PC and smartphone has just been about recreating the mainframe using smaller components. The laser may well have be

Very much so. More and more i feel that he PC and smartphone has just been about recreating the mainframe using smaller components. The laser may well have been the last really new thing to come about.

romaniv 10y ago
Alan Kay spoke about it length in many of his talks. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o Excellent video. I highly recommend everyone working in or with IT to see it. I think he is right. PCs and smartphone are mostly recreating thing from the past, and not the best things either. However, this isn't because we invented everything there is to invent. It has more to do with how research in computing is currently funded and how companies approach invention and innovation.
- deepnotderp 10y ago
  Making things smaller and power efficient IS invention, it's what has driven so much tech progress. Even supercomputers are a power problem now...
  - romaniv 10y ago
    You probably should watch that video. This is one of its core subject. Kay makes a valuable distinction between invention and innovation, and what you describe falls into the "innovation" bucket. It's incremental. Yes, our cellphones are more powerful than mainframes of the old, but do we utilize them to the same extent?
    - kenjackson 10y ago
      But aren't lasers incremental too?
    - deepnotderp 10y ago
      So are FinFETs, Quantum Wells, EUV lithography, compact linear accelerators and all the devices necessary for shrinking just "innovation"? What's "invention then"?
      - debuggerpk 10y ago
        radio probably is invention .. various multiplexing techniques like TDMA, FDMA, CDMA are not ..
arjie 10y ago
With enough work one can convince oneself that each 'discovery' or 'invention' is a trivial follow-up of existing technology. DNA sequencing is in the post-laser era. Can you build a convincing argument as to why it's not new but the laser is new?
- digi_owl 10y ago
  the first laser was built in the 60s, DNA was isolated in 1878.
  - arjie 10y ago
    Sequencing, not isolation. You might as well say that light has been observed since man has had eyes to see.
spitfire 10y ago
I've always thought - and described PC's as mini mainframes. Even the software we run on them is mainframe derived - Unix and VMS. The mobile/tablet is truly the first "personal computer", which we've barely tapped yet. I am hopeful, but at the moment we haven't gone much beyond what we could do with very efficient punch card sorting.

romaniv 10y ago

Alan Kay spoke about it length in many of his talks. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o Excellent video. I highly recommend everyone working in or with IT to see it. I think he is right. PCs and smartphone are mostly recreating thing from the past, and not the best things either. However, this isn't because we invented everything there is to invent. It has more to do with how research in computing is currently funded and how companies approach invention and innovation.

deepnotderp 10y ago
Making things smaller and power efficient IS invention, it's what has driven so much tech progress. Even supercomputers are a power problem now...
- romaniv 10y ago
  You probably should watch that video. This is one of its core subject. Kay makes a valuable distinction between invention and innovation, and what you describe falls into the "innovation" bucket. It's incremental. Yes, our cellphones are more powerful than mainframes of the old, but do we utilize them to the same extent?
  - kenjackson 10y ago
    But aren't lasers incremental too?
  - deepnotderp 10y ago
    So are FinFETs, Quantum Wells, EUV lithography, compact linear accelerators and all the devices necessary for shrinking just "innovation"? What's "invention then"?
    - debuggerpk 10y ago
      radio probably is invention .. various multiplexing techniques like TDMA, FDMA, CDMA are not ..

arjie 10y ago

With enough work one can convince oneself that each 'discovery' or 'invention' is a trivial follow-up of existing technology. DNA sequencing is in the post-laser era. Can you build a convincing argument as to why it's not new but the laser is new?

digi_owl 10y ago
the first laser was built in the 60s, DNA was isolated in 1878.
- arjie 10y ago
  Sequencing, not isolation. You might as well say that light has been observed since man has had eyes to see.

spitfire 10y ago

I've always thought - and described PC's as mini mainframes. Even the software we run on them is mainframe derived - Unix and VMS. The mobile/tablet is truly the first "personal computer", which we've barely tapped yet. I am hopeful, but at the moment we haven't gone much beyond what we could do with very efficient punch card sorting.