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I know this is kind of negative: but I don't like nostalgia much and I think I like tech-nostalgia least. Don't get me wrong I like old tech, but just for what

I know this is kind of negative: but I don't like nostalgia much and I think I like tech-nostalgia least. Don't get me wrong I like old tech, but just for what it is. Text based, simple, fast etc...but I don't like wallowing in a warm, fuzzy feeling about how it was. I mean I personally do recall 5.25" disks. I liked their look and feel as a kid. Fine. But making a big deal out of it feels retrograde...

blowski 4y ago
Exactly. The problem with the 1993 web was that it was usable by and appealed to only a very small part of the population. When people say stuff like this, it sounds to me like they're saying "I wish the web could go back to being a more exclusive club of which I was a member".
- prawn 4y ago
  Maybe it wasn't that it was exclusive, but that it felt manageable and comprehensible. It felt like you could be aware of the breadth of it all (even if some was already out of reach). Now, that feels beyond impossible - we have every niche and every underworld. I started as a web designer as images were being added to browsers and you could change the default grey background colour. Things are a bit different now...
- JohnWhigham 4y ago
  They're right though. The Internet was better when it didn't have tons of people giving their unsolicited opinions and corporations coming in and having every single one of their actions be antithetical to the esprit of the WWW. It was better when people had to put in effort to find something and not take 30 seconds to select the first Google-approved search result.
  - blowski 4y ago
    Was it better for those who couldn't use it?
    - _Algernon_ 4y ago
      Considering for how many the internet has a negative overall value by turning them into conspiracy nuts and mouth pieces, yes. Yes it was.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
> I know this is kind of negative: but I don't like nostalgia much and I think I like tech-nostalgia least. It's not negative. It's an interesting sentiment, but one I think is based on a misperception or mischaracterisation, if you'll permit me; Nostalgia is about experience and feelings. It often has idealising elements, attempting to restore something bound to a specific past time or culture that can never actually be revisited. Wallowing in a warm, fuzzy feeling" as you describe it, is depressive. That's not what's going on in tech. Tech people are experiencing disgust, frustration, anger, hopelessness and a whole range of sentiments hostile to current tech which is objectively broken in a number of ways. And justifiably so. We have wandered off the path, not just the path of "excitement and fun" but right off the path of utility into the long grass of bloated, brittle, precarious, unfathomable and unmaintainable complexity under the yoke of exploitation and false efficiency. The desire to move "backwards" is a desire to fix things. Many of the qualities of earlier tech can, and should be revisited. We're in a cul-de-sac and unable to progress precisely because we label earlier technologies as "necessarily inferior". It is an arrogance and parochialism of false progress to do so. That mind-set always sees any sort of back-tracking as negative regression, or "anti-progressive". But sometimes the way forward is back. Remembering where you've been, is central to any successful algorithm that's navigating a maze (which is what technology is). Projects like Gemini and distributed "New Web" based on overlay networks are not regressive. They are very contemporary attempts to distil the best elements of the 90s internet culture and re-orient development from there, but with the hindsight of knowing how not to do things. > Don't get me wrong I like old tech, but just for what it is. Text based, simple, fast etc... All of those qualities are also possible with new tech. And they make the new tech even better. And as energy and environment bite, we'll start to see them as positive qualities to move toward... in other words our definition (direction) of progress will evolve.
- desertraven 4y ago
  You write well. Very inspiring.
abrookewood 4y ago
5.25" disks? I can remember waiting ~30 minutes for a game to load on my Commodore 64 from tape, only to have it crash at the last minute. Disks were amazing.
- Clubber 4y ago
  The first program I ever got I typed in from a book. It made a spinning pyramid on a VIC-20. It took hours and hours only for it to disappear when I shut off the computer. Tapes were amazing!
  - abrookewood 4y ago
    Yes, I recall borrowing books from the library in order to type in the programs. Can't say I recall punch cards, but I'm sure someone around here does.

blowski 4y ago

Exactly. The problem with the 1993 web was that it was usable by and appealed to only a very small part of the population. When people say stuff like this, it sounds to me like they're saying "I wish the web could go back to being a more exclusive club of which I was a member".

prawn 4y ago
Maybe it wasn't that it was exclusive, but that it felt manageable and comprehensible. It felt like you could be aware of the breadth of it all (even if some was already out of reach). Now, that feels beyond impossible - we have every niche and every underworld. I started as a web designer as images were being added to browsers and you could change the default grey background colour. Things are a bit different now...
JohnWhigham 4y ago
They're right though. The Internet was better when it didn't have tons of people giving their unsolicited opinions and corporations coming in and having every single one of their actions be antithetical to the esprit of the WWW. It was better when people had to put in effort to find something and not take 30 seconds to select the first Google-approved search result.
- blowski 4y ago
  Was it better for those who couldn't use it?
  - _Algernon_ 4y ago
    Considering for how many the internet has a negative overall value by turning them into conspiracy nuts and mouth pieces, yes. Yes it was.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

> I know this is kind of negative: but I don't like nostalgia much and I think I like tech-nostalgia least. It's not negative. It's an interesting sentiment, but one I think is based on a misperception or mischaracterisation, if you'll permit me; Nostalgia is about experience and feelings. It often has idealising elements, attempting to restore something bound to a specific past time or culture that can never actually be revisited. Wallowing in a warm, fuzzy feeling" as you describe it, is depressive. That's not what's going on in tech. Tech people are experiencing disgust, frustration, anger, hopelessness and a whole range of sentiments hostile to current tech which is objectively broken in a number of ways. And justifiably so. We have wandered off the path, not just the path of "excitement and fun" but right off the path of utility into the long grass of bloated, brittle, precarious, unfathomable and unmaintainable complexity under the yoke of exploitation and false efficiency. The desire to move "backwards" is a desire to fix things. Many of the qualities of earlier tech can, and should be revisited. We're in a cul-de-sac and unable to progress precisely because we label earlier technologies as "necessarily inferior". It is an arrogance and parochialism of false progress to do so. That mind-set always sees any sort of back-tracking as negative regression, or "anti-progressive". But sometimes the way forward is back. Remembering where you've been, is central to any successful algorithm that's navigating a maze (which is what technology is). Projects like Gemini and distributed "New Web" based on overlay networks are not regressive. They are very contemporary attempts to distil the best elements of the 90s internet culture and re-orient development from there, but with the hindsight of knowing how not to do things. > Don't get me wrong I like old tech, but just for what it is. Text based, simple, fast etc... All of those qualities are also possible with new tech. And they make the new tech even better. And as energy and environment bite, we'll start to see them as positive qualities to move toward... in other words our definition (direction) of progress will evolve.

desertraven 4y ago
You write well. Very inspiring.

abrookewood 4y ago

5.25" disks? I can remember waiting ~30 minutes for a game to load on my Commodore 64 from tape, only to have it crash at the last minute. Disks were amazing.

Clubber 4y ago
The first program I ever got I typed in from a book. It made a spinning pyramid on a VIC-20. It took hours and hours only for it to disappear when I shut off the computer. Tapes were amazing!
- abrookewood 4y ago
  Yes, I recall borrowing books from the library in order to type in the programs. Can't say I recall punch cards, but I'm sure someone around here does.