3 ms·

So far it's been a lot of "look how smart we are: we make things easy!" It brings me to a pretty forlorn place, that there is such high & mighty technology, bu

So far it's been a lot of "look how smart we are: we make things easy!" It brings me to a pretty forlorn place, that there is such high & mighty technology, but delivered in such preconcieved, packaged products. Technological goods have become much better distributed, but the art of technology keeps evaporating upwards. Subliming up into the cloud. Part of the allure of the personal computing era (RIP) was that it invited in the spirit of Man The Toolmaker. There was a dignity to mastery & development that was visible, we could form a close & knowing relationship with our systems. That spirit has been returned to the gods, fire returned back to Hephaestus's workshop. Which is now HQ'ed in Mountain View. (I haven't always felt this way about Google. My perception is there had been a bigger focus on helping advance the web & making available APIs. That Google was creating new starting places.)

meragrin_ 5y ago
Perhaps you are better off watching the developer keynote?
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
The same thing happened with cars. A half century who, anyone with a bit of an interest used to be able to understand pretty much everything going on under the hood of a car of the era. Today no one person fully understands the symphony between all the mechanical, hardware, and suffocate systems in a given brand new vehicle. As technology matures, the underlying systems that drive it increase in complexity, but the user experience improves and simplifies. A mechanical pocket watch is much more complex than an hourglass or sundial, but vastly more useful.
- rektide 5y ago
  It's more exotic but there's plenty of very very fancy aftermarket engine & fuel control systems, options for the geeks to get in & remap things ro their hearts content. Do most gearheads go there? No. Is it available for all vehicles? Absolutely not. But there's an enthusiast community & a serving of it where it is absolutely recognized as a pinnacle of belief that keeping humans in the loop, giving them options & control, is the only acceptable path, that falling from grace is not an option. Generally I dont think you are entirely wrong per se, but the degree to which modern computong technology has precluded, prevented human engagement is unbelievable. To chase your analogies again, almost no one will be compelled to go understand their mechanical pocketwatch. But they could. A decent repairman could fix it. In contrast, the technology we entreat with is 100% alien, a far off remote force we cannot observe, cannot learn about, ensconsed in behind impreginible firewalls: we cannot ever begin to understand the vast realms of computing we are innundated with, we have no stance at all, are regarded as nothing. This is against the human spirit, this is the ultimate infernal device, and we should smash it to pieces, resist, with everytbing we have, with every joule in our souls.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  *software systems, not suffocate systems

meragrin_ 5y ago

Perhaps you are better off watching the developer keynote?

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago

The same thing happened with cars. A half century who, anyone with a bit of an interest used to be able to understand pretty much everything going on under the hood of a car of the era. Today no one person fully understands the symphony between all the mechanical, hardware, and suffocate systems in a given brand new vehicle. As technology matures, the underlying systems that drive it increase in complexity, but the user experience improves and simplifies. A mechanical pocket watch is much more complex than an hourglass or sundial, but vastly more useful.

rektide 5y ago
It's more exotic but there's plenty of very very fancy aftermarket engine & fuel control systems, options for the geeks to get in & remap things ro their hearts content. Do most gearheads go there? No. Is it available for all vehicles? Absolutely not. But there's an enthusiast community & a serving of it where it is absolutely recognized as a pinnacle of belief that keeping humans in the loop, giving them options & control, is the only acceptable path, that falling from grace is not an option. Generally I dont think you are entirely wrong per se, but the degree to which modern computong technology has precluded, prevented human engagement is unbelievable. To chase your analogies again, almost no one will be compelled to go understand their mechanical pocketwatch. But they could. A decent repairman could fix it. In contrast, the technology we entreat with is 100% alien, a far off remote force we cannot observe, cannot learn about, ensconsed in behind impreginible firewalls: we cannot ever begin to understand the vast realms of computing we are innundated with, we have no stance at all, are regarded as nothing. This is against the human spirit, this is the ultimate infernal device, and we should smash it to pieces, resist, with everytbing we have, with every joule in our souls.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
*software systems, not suffocate systems