3 ms·

Interesting thing about the switch as a computing device is that it has no intrinsic size limits (other than physics itself). The vast majority of machines can

Interesting thing about the switch as a computing device is that it has no intrinsic size limits (other than physics itself). The vast majority of machines cannot fulfill their function below a certain size. A car or a stove can't be miniaturized but "pure" switches can. - - - - > And that’s another observation that could only have been made closer to the start than today, with the perspective to see the before and after: if it served to entrench and not upend the existing class system, was the computer revolution a revolution at all? Well, which existing class system, eh? Ask the East coast elites what they think of the new upstart West coast elites. Silicon Valley is young, the people who won big out here are the challenge to the old class system. It might feel like FAANG are "the establishment" but the fight is still raging. As far as liberating the lower classes to upend the existing class system, yeah, that idea sure turned out to be incredibly naive. :(

quantified 6y ago
Elites still be elites. West Coast elites pick from Stanford instead of Yale. Desk jockeys win out against hand and body workers. It’s the same, just spread westward. What new things have been enabled that might affect class? I’m not sure that “influencers” obtain a higher class level. They’re an interesting beneficiary of the technology shifts, but it’s tech more as publishing platform than tech as tech. New commerce platforms allow a different patterns of buyers and sellers, but we’ve always had a variety of merchants. The ability to own and apply statistical models as produced by ML seems like elite. Are the people who build and own these drawn from lower-than-elite classes? I think the VCs and other investors that prosper from them are the definition of elite class.

3 ms·

Interesting thing about the switch as a computing device is that it has no intrinsic size limits (other than physics itself). The vast majority of machines can

by carapace 6y ago

quantified 6y ago
Elites still be elites. West Coast elites pick from Stanford instead of Yale. Desk jockeys win out against hand and body workers. It’s the same, just spread westward. What new things have been enabled that might affect class? I’m not sure that “influencers” obtain a higher class level. They’re an interesting beneficiary of the technology shifts, but it’s tech more as publishing platform than tech as tech. New commerce platforms allow a different patterns of buyers and sellers, but we’ve always had a variety of merchants. The ability to own and apply statistical models as produced by ML seems like elite. Are the people who build and own these drawn from lower-than-elite classes? I think the VCs and other investors that prosper from them are the definition of elite class.