4 ms·

I find it interesting that the problems you describe as "modern" seem to have had the solution before the problem. I mean it's probably because we had the solut

by collyw 6y ago

I find it interesting that the problems you describe as "modern" seem to have had the solution before the problem. I mean it's probably because we had the solution of scalable parallel computing available via the cloud that the problems started to be solved. Are the problems themselves modern?

kstrauser 6y ago
I’ve worked at a few shops doing bleeding edge stuff, so that probably colors my perceptions a lot, but you’re probably onto something. And that’s kind of the history of computing, isn’t it? Weather prediction used to look a lot like “we got a telegraph from a city 200 miles west that it was raining today, so maybe we’ll get some rain tomorrow?” to “hey, these computers are getting pretty good at math. Think we could model a cold front?” I remember playing with neural networks on my home Amiga way back when, and that was a fun toy. Now we say “here’s a petabyte of epidemic records. See anything unexpected?” Or one time someone really wished they could do math even faster than the GPU would allow, and happened to glance at their graphics card, and now we have Dogecoin. I think our industry has a great record of figuring out new ways to use things that was wholly unlike what the inventors had expected, and that’s probably what makes predicting our future directions so difficult. Like, we have ideas about problems we’d like to solve with quantum computers, but once they’re widely available I guarantee someone will realize they can also be used to make better Spotify playlists or such.
- collyw 6y ago
  I was kind of assuming you were some youngster until you mentioned the Amiga. Good memories there.
  - kstrauser 6y ago
    Hah, I wish! No, I'm closer to graybeard turf these days - due to the SIP, that's quite literally true. (Side note: the custom keyboard I bought last week has Amiga caps for the command keys).

by collyw 6y ago

kstrauser 6y ago

I’ve worked at a few shops doing bleeding edge stuff, so that probably colors my perceptions a lot, but you’re probably onto something. And that’s kind of the history of computing, isn’t it? Weather prediction used to look a lot like “we got a telegraph from a city 200 miles west that it was raining today, so maybe we’ll get some rain tomorrow?” to “hey, these computers are getting pretty good at math. Think we could model a cold front?” I remember playing with neural networks on my home Amiga way back when, and that was a fun toy. Now we say “here’s a petabyte of epidemic records. See anything unexpected?” Or one time someone really wished they could do math even faster than the GPU would allow, and happened to glance at their graphics card, and now we have Dogecoin. I think our industry has a great record of figuring out new ways to use things that was wholly unlike what the inventors had expected, and that’s probably what makes predicting our future directions so difficult. Like, we have ideas about problems we’d like to solve with quantum computers, but once they’re widely available I guarantee someone will realize they can also be used to make better Spotify playlists or such.

collyw 6y ago
I was kind of assuming you were some youngster until you mentioned the Amiga. Good memories there.
- kstrauser 6y ago
  Hah, I wish! No, I'm closer to graybeard turf these days - due to the SIP, that's quite literally true. (Side note: the custom keyboard I bought last week has Amiga caps for the command keys).