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I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools. To make quality content, whether it be apps/music/movies/etc..it requ

I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools. To make quality content, whether it be apps/music/movies/etc..it requires much more than tools. I respect Alan Kay, but I don't understand the need to bash on modern day technology. Have we really come along way in terms of general computing? Maybe not [Example: 0]. But in terms of the digital world, I can take a video of my parents and send it to my cousin who lives 10,000 miles away and he can respond in a matter of seconds. I can literally meet people in remote areas of the world. I can interact with people who barely have food but somehow can get cell phone access and now they are learning and communicating with everyone else. I can't imagine a better way to level the playing field (socioeconomically) globally then how we have it. Do we have a lot more work to do? Sure. But Rome wasn't built in a day. The future of the internet & technology, the direction it's headed, is going to come from small contributions from millions across the world. What people will need will turn into what we have and use. And there won't be some magical device that just pops out of nowhere that will change everything. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY

scroot 9y ago
> "I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools." That is not Kay's argument. Not everyone who scribbles notes or draws something on a piece of paper is a "creative" or artist. Not all who write at all are professional writers. But we do not have the computing equivalent of paper for everyone. Sure, someone can write in a word processor or draw in a drawing program, but that's not all that a computer is for -- that's just imitating paper. The outstanding question is: can we make something that is as extensible as pen and paper and literacy for aiding human thought for the next level, the computing level? All we have now are stiff applications. Saying that such things make people literate in computing is like writing by filling out forms. > "Do we have a lot more work to do? Sure. But Rome wasn't built in a day." Kay is your ally here, a constant gadfly putting the lie to all the hype and BS. He's a constant reminder that we shouldn't feel so satisfied with our mud huts. He's reminding us to build Rome at all.
homarp 9y ago
>I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools. To make _quality_ content,... who cares about quality ? who is the judge of what "quality" is ? As long as someone can create the content _and distribute it_, they are a digital creative.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
I see the problem right here: "To make quality content ..." The right tools shouldn't be about creating "content", they should be about letting you solve your own problems, instead of trying to transform them into problems you can buy a solution for. Creative arts are only subset of this - they happen when someone's problem is "I want to make a piece of art". > Have we really come along way in terms of general computing? Maybe not That's the point AK seems to be making, though. All the great things you mention are huge accomplishments, yet they're also disappointing compared to what is possible, what we should have now. Rome wasn't built in a day, but you have this whole army of Rome builders who decided that it's better to sell bricks instead of building the city...

scroot 9y ago

> "I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools." That is not Kay's argument. Not everyone who scribbles notes or draws something on a piece of paper is a "creative" or artist. Not all who write at all are professional writers. But we do not have the computing equivalent of paper for everyone. Sure, someone can write in a word processor or draw in a drawing program, but that's not all that a computer is for -- that's just imitating paper. The outstanding question is: can we make something that is as extensible as pen and paper and literacy for aiding human thought for the next level, the computing level? All we have now are stiff applications. Saying that such things make people literate in computing is like writing by filling out forms. > "Do we have a lot more work to do? Sure. But Rome wasn't built in a day." Kay is your ally here, a constant gadfly putting the lie to all the hype and BS. He's a constant reminder that we shouldn't feel so satisfied with our mud huts. He's reminding us to build Rome at all.

homarp 9y ago

>I don't buy it that everyone would be a digital creative if they just had the right tools. To make _quality_ content,... who cares about quality ? who is the judge of what "quality" is ? As long as someone can create the content _and distribute it_, they are a digital creative.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

I see the problem right here: "To make quality content ..." The right tools shouldn't be about creating "content", they should be about letting you solve your own problems, instead of trying to transform them into problems you can buy a solution for. Creative arts are only subset of this - they happen when someone's problem is "I want to make a piece of art". > Have we really come along way in terms of general computing? Maybe not That's the point AK seems to be making, though. All the great things you mention are huge accomplishments, yet they're also disappointing compared to what is possible, what we should have now. Rome wasn't built in a day, but you have this whole army of Rome builders who decided that it's better to sell bricks instead of building the city...