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The trend described in this article was written about by Buckminster Fuller in 1938, except he called it ephemeralization [1]. Paul Graham wrote an essay on th

by oska 7y ago

The trend described in this article was written about by Buckminster Fuller in 1938, except he called it ephemeralization [1]. Paul Graham wrote an essay on the same subject (iphones and ephemeralization) in 2010 and, unlike this piece, made reference to Fuller's early identification of the trend. [2] Im my opinion, ephemeralization is a better descriptor of the trend than dematerialization. Bucky was an extremely careful user of language, to the point of coining his own words when he didn't feel any existing words served his purpose. I think he was right to not use dematerialization to describe the trend because it is manufacturing where you are not removing material (dematerializing it), rather you are simply not using it, or using less of it, in the first place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization [2] http://www.paulgraham.com/tablets.html http://www.paulgraham.com/tablets.html

gb 7y ago
The article did mention it: > Dematerialization is an idea that goes back at least as far as the 1920s (with R. Buckminster Fuller’s concept of “ephemerialization”)
- oska 7y ago
  Oh, thank you, my mistake.
JetezLeLogin 7y ago
I'm not real happy with either of the two. They both have connotations that are irrelevant: "ephemeral" tends to mean brief/transitory, while any negation of "material" leans toward either non-existence or "not-mattering." There's already a 90s-origin term that considers this same phenomenon, in the same context, and addresses it in the way we want it to: virtual. Software on phones "virtualizes" our clocks/cameras/etc. Wired of all publications should remember that one. Actually maybe they're explicitly avoiding it after spending years saying "virtual" seemingly every 3rd or 4th word! N-gram of "virtual": https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=virtual&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=15&smoothing=2 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=virtual&year_s... The line really starts sloping upward in the 90s and peaks in the early 00s.
- drawkbox 7y ago
  Virtualization has helped immensely in many ways to reduce resources used and to eliminate costs. People used to buy books, games, music, movies, in addition to clocks, cameras and others you mention in a physical form but now are moving to virtual products. Many products are virtual now from play/entertainment to work/administrative (file cabinets, storage, etc). Just looking at my own purchases, most are virtual when they used to fill book shelves, cabinets and trash bins eventually. Ultimately virtual goods will help solve, and is helping solve resources used, while allowing growth. Lots of pushing resources previously was about getting to that growth metric, growth can now happen, and even in greater numbers exponentially in virtual worlds like apps, games, movies, offices, government, businesses and more. Virtual goods have also helped 'clean up' areas like many think the crime reduction after the 90s was the result of some policy, but ultimately it was the internet that cleaned it up and reduced crime. People are indoors, more aware, more access to information that they need/want. Even Times Square cleanup was attributed to oversight, when in actuality the porn went online which led to less crime and less out in the open products. Virtual goods and products moving this way is helping us not just to dematerialize, but move to virtual resources that are bits on a disk not physical content, bookshelves and cabinets.

by oska 7y ago

gb 7y ago

The article did mention it: > Dematerialization is an idea that goes back at least as far as the 1920s (with R. Buckminster Fuller’s concept of “ephemerialization”)

oska 7y ago
Oh, thank you, my mistake.

JetezLeLogin 7y ago

I'm not real happy with either of the two. They both have connotations that are irrelevant: "ephemeral" tends to mean brief/transitory, while any negation of "material" leans toward either non-existence or "not-mattering." There's already a 90s-origin term that considers this same phenomenon, in the same context, and addresses it in the way we want it to: virtual. Software on phones "virtualizes" our clocks/cameras/etc. Wired of all publications should remember that one. Actually maybe they're explicitly avoiding it after spending years saying "virtual" seemingly every 3rd or 4th word! N-gram of "virtual": https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=virtual&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=15&smoothing=2 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=virtual&year_s... The line really starts sloping upward in the 90s and peaks in the early 00s.

drawkbox 7y ago
Virtualization has helped immensely in many ways to reduce resources used and to eliminate costs. People used to buy books, games, music, movies, in addition to clocks, cameras and others you mention in a physical form but now are moving to virtual products. Many products are virtual now from play/entertainment to work/administrative (file cabinets, storage, etc). Just looking at my own purchases, most are virtual when they used to fill book shelves, cabinets and trash bins eventually. Ultimately virtual goods will help solve, and is helping solve resources used, while allowing growth. Lots of pushing resources previously was about getting to that growth metric, growth can now happen, and even in greater numbers exponentially in virtual worlds like apps, games, movies, offices, government, businesses and more. Virtual goods have also helped 'clean up' areas like many think the crime reduction after the 90s was the result of some policy, but ultimately it was the internet that cleaned it up and reduced crime. People are indoors, more aware, more access to information that they need/want. Even Times Square cleanup was attributed to oversight, when in actuality the porn went online which led to less crime and less out in the open products. Virtual goods and products moving this way is helping us not just to dematerialize, but move to virtual resources that are bits on a disk not physical content, bookshelves and cabinets.