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Sorry if this is off-topic for HN. I thought more people here would be interested in looking back at this advertisement from 1967 for IBM. Not just for the visi

Sorry if this is off-topic for HN. I thought more people here would be interested in looking back at this advertisement from 1967 for IBM. Not just for the vision of the automated future it promotes, but also because of the presentation style, and a bit because Jim Henson of Muppets fame made it. I cannot say for sure if it is my modern interpretation of an old video, but my take is that Henson inserted a lot of ominous undertones that were subtly subversive the "official" stance of the advertisement. Certainly would fit his character. Henson also made a video with similar themes for AT&T in 1963, with an automated robot[0]. In retrospect we can see that instead of freeing us up, automation merely lead to more paperwork - an example of Jevons Paradox in action[1]. To me it's a reminder that with many problems we try to improve things by doing it the same way but more efficiently. Sometimes that is appropriate, but sometimes that will not be enough, or even make things worse without also applying first-principle changes that address the root cause of the problem. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivJNNwTGDcw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivJNNwTGDcw [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

dredmorbius 8y ago
Thanks for the Jevons Paradox mention, as that was going to be my comment. If you want to reduce paperwork (or nearly any other activity or consumption), you need to increase its costs (or decrease its benefits), not reduce them through efficiency improvements. Preferably on the party imposing it.
- mercer 8y ago
  This reminds me of a discussion I had with a younger sibling (10+ years) about high school homework. I was shocked to hear from him and our parents how much homework he was assigned compared to myself at his age, and I couldn't help but wonder whether the ease with which this homework was assigned played a role. In 'my day' homework involved handing in paperwork, which the teacher took home to grade over the weekend, along with that of 30+ fellow students. In 'his day' homework involved filling in a web form within some shitty e-learning environment, or at worst uploading a document somewhere, which the teacher could either grade automatically in the former cases, or skim through on their laptop in the latter case. Discussions surrounding this increase in homework often center around higher-level sociological/psychological factors, but I wonder how much of a role ease played in all this: if you can grade 30+ tests with a click of a button, perhaps it leads to more testing?
  - dredmorbius 8y ago
    Damned good point there.

dredmorbius 8y ago

Thanks for the Jevons Paradox mention, as that was going to be my comment. If you want to reduce paperwork (or nearly any other activity or consumption), you need to increase its costs (or decrease its benefits), not reduce them through efficiency improvements. Preferably on the party imposing it.

mercer 8y ago
This reminds me of a discussion I had with a younger sibling (10+ years) about high school homework. I was shocked to hear from him and our parents how much homework he was assigned compared to myself at his age, and I couldn't help but wonder whether the ease with which this homework was assigned played a role. In 'my day' homework involved handing in paperwork, which the teacher took home to grade over the weekend, along with that of 30+ fellow students. In 'his day' homework involved filling in a web form within some shitty e-learning environment, or at worst uploading a document somewhere, which the teacher could either grade automatically in the former cases, or skim through on their laptop in the latter case. Discussions surrounding this increase in homework often center around higher-level sociological/psychological factors, but I wonder how much of a role ease played in all this: if you can grade 30+ tests with a click of a button, perhaps it leads to more testing?
- dredmorbius 8y ago
  Damned good point there.