I don't think there was a post-70s winter. There was just not enough 'there' to over-hype; it was toy problems that did not even try to masquerade as real solu

I don't think there was a post-70s winter. There was just not enough 'there' to over-hype; it was toy problems that did not even try to masquerade as real solutions other than in sci-fi and popular culture. Luminaries in the field definitely made a name by pumping out speculative paper after speculative paper, but IMHO there was more of an ember waiting to spark than there was a fire consuming all of its fuel. By the late-80s and early-90s you have venture-backed companies, big institutional efforts, grifters who had honed their pitch in academic tenure-track positions prior to moving to richer waters, and the first real claims being made regarding just-around-the-corner deliverables that would change everything. Maybe I am jaded from experiencing that same winter, but from what I recall the prior decades were more consumed with people making broad claims to try to establish intellectual primacy more than making claims about what could be delivered.