What makes tech less cool today is the ubiquity. Anything that's commonly and affordably available is almost by definition not cool. Cool stuff is that which is

What makes tech less cool today is the ubiquity. Anything that's commonly and affordably available is almost by definition not cool. Cool stuff is that which is out of reach, around the corner, etc. We still have lots of that too but it tends to be more research oriented or of the terrifying variety. A contributor to this is how quickly a cool discovery can be developed into mass-marketed consumer products.