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You might be a little overoptimistic! Remember you've been promised flying cars, but cars today look almost identical to those from 130 years ago.

Banana699 5y ago
Cars can't get any smaller because they are constrained by a much more fundamental size limit than computers: the size to fit the driver and the passenger(s) and still have an engine. Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. They didn't get any faster than 1960s-1970s limits because of efficiency and safety considerations, as well as the fact that a faster car means absolutely nothing on a jammed road, and traffic jams happen for reasons entirely unrelated to the speed of the cars involved. They didn't fly because of a complex mix of challenging engineering, tricky economics and the naivety of cultural expectation. Computers are different. They are mainly limited by the size of the UI and other IO, the actual "computer" is inconceivably, inhumanly, unimaginably small. Most of our devices is just places for your fingers to touch and your eyes to see. We can keep shrinking until we get to the point where computers are things we put inside our brains cells and inject in our bloodstream, and perhaps even more. They can absolutely get faster and more efficient than they are today. The brain that made them makes do with 100W and makes a mockery of GPT3 and CNNs. Yes it's a specialized architecture, that's the whole point. The easy money of moore's law and Dennard scaling blinded us to a whole landscape of possible computer architecture and programming paradigms, we haven't made a dent in that mine yet.
- foepys 5y ago
  > Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. No, Formula 1 cars are massive. They are light but very large to maximize downforce. There are a rules that define the maximum width and no current F1 car is smaller than that. I'm fact, this year's rules also define a maximum length and some manufacturers needed to shorten their cars.
- piva00 5y ago
  > Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. What? A 2021 Formula 1 car is around 2 meters wide and between 5-6 meters long, those dimensions are larger than many cars, only being beaten by pickup trucks.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Well even that size is not enough for controlled passenger flight
SergeAx 5y ago
Isn't this a straw man argument? Nobody in their right mind promised flying cars, it is just not feasible energy-wise. On the other hand, VR headset is just a mobile phone strapped to user's face, with it's screen always on. So the tech is already here, and if you check out Quest and Quest 2 - it is basically just that, even powered by the same Android OS.
dagmx 5y ago
I feel like this is a strawman argument without the nuance of the specifics of each field, or how the ideas were portrayed. Were you promised flying cars or was it concept art of a future without the limits of physics? That's very different than ideation from companies actively working on a product and having a deep understanding of the limitations involved.
- smorgusofborg 5y ago
  Flying cars were delivered and one flew until 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar The FAA rejected the dream of normal drivers instead of trained pilots having flying cars, and IMO rightly so.

Banana699 5y ago

Cars can't get any smaller because they are constrained by a much more fundamental size limit than computers: the size to fit the driver and the passenger(s) and still have an engine. Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. They didn't get any faster than 1960s-1970s limits because of efficiency and safety considerations, as well as the fact that a faster car means absolutely nothing on a jammed road, and traffic jams happen for reasons entirely unrelated to the speed of the cars involved. They didn't fly because of a complex mix of challenging engineering, tricky economics and the naivety of cultural expectation. Computers are different. They are mainly limited by the size of the UI and other IO, the actual "computer" is inconceivably, inhumanly, unimaginably small. Most of our devices is just places for your fingers to touch and your eyes to see. We can keep shrinking until we get to the point where computers are things we put inside our brains cells and inject in our bloodstream, and perhaps even more. They can absolutely get faster and more efficient than they are today. The brain that made them makes do with 100W and makes a mockery of GPT3 and CNNs. Yes it's a specialized architecture, that's the whole point. The easy money of moore's law and Dennard scaling blinded us to a whole landscape of possible computer architecture and programming paradigms, we haven't made a dent in that mine yet.

foepys 5y ago
> Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. No, Formula 1 cars are massive. They are light but very large to maximize downforce. There are a rules that define the maximum width and no current F1 car is smaller than that. I'm fact, this year's rules also define a maximum length and some manufacturers needed to shorten their cars.
piva00 5y ago
> Formula 1 cars are as small as it gets. What? A 2021 Formula 1 car is around 2 meters wide and between 5-6 meters long, those dimensions are larger than many cars, only being beaten by pickup trucks.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Well even that size is not enough for controlled passenger flight

SergeAx 5y ago

Isn't this a straw man argument? Nobody in their right mind promised flying cars, it is just not feasible energy-wise. On the other hand, VR headset is just a mobile phone strapped to user's face, with it's screen always on. So the tech is already here, and if you check out Quest and Quest 2 - it is basically just that, even powered by the same Android OS.

dagmx 5y ago

I feel like this is a strawman argument without the nuance of the specifics of each field, or how the ideas were portrayed. Were you promised flying cars or was it concept art of a future without the limits of physics? That's very different than ideation from companies actively working on a product and having a deep understanding of the limitations involved.

smorgusofborg 5y ago
Flying cars were delivered and one flew until 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar The FAA rejected the dream of normal drivers instead of trained pilots having flying cars, and IMO rightly so.