4 ms·

Xerox PARC is the stuff of legend. Its an accident of both time (ICs are becoming available), money (Xerox is happy to pour money into the thing with no real ob

Xerox PARC is the stuff of legend. Its an accident of both time (ICs are becoming available), money (Xerox is happy to pour money into the thing with no real objectives) and people (a literal who's who of talent.) New, but possible, industries last only for a moment. Gathering talent for that moment and just letting them create, results in an explosion. It's rare precisely because its impossible to manufacture. These days money is easy. People is harder. Right-Time is impossible. Computing is ubiquitous, nothing new will have the same depth as PARC. The biggest change since PARC has been touch screens. That's significant, but a single technology. When PARC happens again it won't be in tech, but in some other field, something that's new, but possible. I have lived a life in the shadow and shade that PARC created. I tip my hat, raise a glass and salute you all.

Swizec 4y ago
> Right-Time is impossible. I think we’re right around the Right-Time era for biotech and genetic engineering. CRISPR is easily Xerox PARC level of influence on the next era of tech.
ido 4y ago
How about the Web?
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  If you mean web not internet then there is a similar confluence there, Cern, money into research, Tim Berners-Lee and advocates of what he created.
  - ido 4y ago
    I meant "The biggest change since PARC has been touch screens" -> hasn't the Web been a bigger change than touch screens?
hardware2win 4y ago
World improving tech constanty appear E.g payment systems and logistic solutions. Cloud also changed a lot.
- cultureswitch 4y ago
  Considering what happened during the last 2660 or so years, I think whether payment systems improved the world is still up for debate.
drpixie 4y ago
Yup - we have higher res graphics, and (maybe) quicker networking, but we're doing almost exactly the same things, in almost exactly the same manner. Progress?? I despair that we've all got astonishing computer power but it hasn't got us far at all. If anything, we just accept poorer apps and less efficient systems. Though they do look prettier. Sigh.
- ROTMetro 4y ago
  Strong disagree. Quick off the top of my head: Kids today on their laptops have more music tools than a $500,000 studio would have had 20 years ago. VSCode compared to the tools I used in the 90s blows my mind every day. I'll be like 'hmmm, you know what would be a nice tool/feature' go to marketplace, yep, someone made it and I am now using it 5 minutes after having a thought. My son moved to a remote location yet can keep in touch with friends and family easily sharing videos/playing games together. I talked to my grandparents once every other month over a poor quality phone call. Cost of communication isn't even a consideration when I reach out to my son today. https://www.ableton.com/en/ https://www.ableton.com/en/ https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - drpixie 4y ago
    Obviously I didn't make my point clearly, because your examples confirm what I'm thinking. Electronic music has been around for ages - I was a great fan of Kraftwerk. Your kids have huge amounts of music, I had a bit - they are doing the same thing, just more of it. You love VSCode - but you're using it to cut code at the same (or similar) level of complexity to what I was cutting 40 years ago. Maybe quicker, or easier, but essentially the same activity. Comms is cheaper and easier (I remember when email became a thing - wow - we had a stable route from Oz to MIT - back in the uucp days!) but we're doing what we always did - talking and writing to each other. Where are the new things? The things that didn't exist previously? What are we using this tech for, that we just couldn't do before? The only answers that has been a little convincing is gaming and big data. It wasn't possible/practical to do large scale simulation before. But many of our games are largely the same old activities ... shoot-em-ups, DnD. The tiny "retro" games might be one of few things that just didn't exist before "micro" tech. And big data (eg. ChatGPT) just wasn't possible before enormous amounts of accessible data ... but it's looking like it's just a great Eliza :(

Swizec 4y ago

> Right-Time is impossible. I think we’re right around the Right-Time era for biotech and genetic engineering. CRISPR is easily Xerox PARC level of influence on the next era of tech.

ido 4y ago

How about the Web?

quickthrower2 4y ago
If you mean web not internet then there is a similar confluence there, Cern, money into research, Tim Berners-Lee and advocates of what he created.
- ido 4y ago
  I meant "The biggest change since PARC has been touch screens" -> hasn't the Web been a bigger change than touch screens?

hardware2win 4y ago

World improving tech constanty appear E.g payment systems and logistic solutions. Cloud also changed a lot.

cultureswitch 4y ago
Considering what happened during the last 2660 or so years, I think whether payment systems improved the world is still up for debate.

drpixie 4y ago

Yup - we have higher res graphics, and (maybe) quicker networking, but we're doing almost exactly the same things, in almost exactly the same manner. Progress?? I despair that we've all got astonishing computer power but it hasn't got us far at all. If anything, we just accept poorer apps and less efficient systems. Though they do look prettier. Sigh.

ROTMetro 4y ago
Strong disagree. Quick off the top of my head: Kids today on their laptops have more music tools than a $500,000 studio would have had 20 years ago. VSCode compared to the tools I used in the 90s blows my mind every day. I'll be like 'hmmm, you know what would be a nice tool/feature' go to marketplace, yep, someone made it and I am now using it 5 minutes after having a thought. My son moved to a remote location yet can keep in touch with friends and family easily sharing videos/playing games together. I talked to my grandparents once every other month over a poor quality phone call. Cost of communication isn't even a consideration when I reach out to my son today. https://www.ableton.com/en/ https://www.ableton.com/en/ https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- drpixie 4y ago
  Obviously I didn't make my point clearly, because your examples confirm what I'm thinking. Electronic music has been around for ages - I was a great fan of Kraftwerk. Your kids have huge amounts of music, I had a bit - they are doing the same thing, just more of it. You love VSCode - but you're using it to cut code at the same (or similar) level of complexity to what I was cutting 40 years ago. Maybe quicker, or easier, but essentially the same activity. Comms is cheaper and easier (I remember when email became a thing - wow - we had a stable route from Oz to MIT - back in the uucp days!) but we're doing what we always did - talking and writing to each other. Where are the new things? The things that didn't exist previously? What are we using this tech for, that we just couldn't do before? The only answers that has been a little convincing is gaming and big data. It wasn't possible/practical to do large scale simulation before. But many of our games are largely the same old activities ... shoot-em-ups, DnD. The tiny "retro" games might be one of few things that just didn't exist before "micro" tech. And big data (eg. ChatGPT) just wasn't possible before enormous amounts of accessible data ... but it's looking like it's just a great Eliza :(