"So it wasn't just the AI winter that killed Symbolics - it was the fact that both hardware and software were essentially nostalgic knock-offs of product models

"So it wasn't just the AI winter that killed Symbolics - it was the fact that both hardware and software were essentially nostalgic knock-offs of product models from 5-10 years earlier that were already outdated." I really like this quote and perspective. I think it was a byproduct of period communications - not today's ubiquitous connections. Essentially it was a very small, even inbred community that talked mostly to itself. "Itself" including associated members at the likes of DARPA. And that was enough to get the funding (and closely related hype) ball rolling. There was little if any feedback from outside the crowd. Even the West Coast was another world to a certain extent. I'm reminded of XKL - a Cisco founder going into business to (initially) produce modern PDP-10s in the early 90s. Because, you know, that's what the world (even that small inbred world) was waiting for.