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"we completely missed the most important aspect of the network -- that it was going to connect people to other people." I find this to be far the most interest

"we completely missed the most important aspect of the network -- that it was going to connect people to other people." I find this to be far the most interesting part of this article. Why was it that they missed this aspect? Was it just something they overlooked, or was it that people could not envision connecting with each other through technology? Interesting to think about.

w1ntermute 15y ago
It's easy for engineers to predict technical developments, like cellular technology. What doesn't come natural for those who are technically oriented is the prediction of how people, and society at large, will respond to and therefore influence the development of that technology. Wikipedia is what it is today because of the collaborative nature of its editing process. I have no doubt that the "Intelligent Encyclopedia" envisioned by Atari didn't even dream of the possibility of it being community-edited.
sliverstorm 15y ago
When they say they "missed" it, they mean that they dreamed it up but did not understand the impact it would have. They glossed over it, assuming it would just be an "improvement" in the same way that longer battery life is an improvement. They did not consider the secondary and tertiary impacts; most importantly, en-mass community collaboration. The key is not actually even the wireless; remember, these are from 1982 when the internet as we know it did not yet exist. It is the global connectivity, period, not the wireless.
no_more_death 15y ago
People miss this. Technology makes us more human, not less. Technology creates new verbs ("email" me; "like" me, "follow" me). But we embrace only language that makes us more human, not less. People think that technology colonizes us. On the contrary, we colonize technology. However, humanity has good and evil sides. Trouble brews when the evil colonizes more effectively than the good. Preventing this is itself a "wicked problem."
jarin 15y ago
I think it's because back in the day, the mainframe mentality was predominant. Sit at a terminal, make the computer do something, and get the results back. In 1982, nobody thought email would become a mainstream form of communication, and CompuServe had recently introduced the first chat room.
- glhaynes 15y ago
  Also, TV and radio broadcasts formed a huge part of the mental model for how media was created and distributed.

w1ntermute 15y ago

It's easy for engineers to predict technical developments, like cellular technology. What doesn't come natural for those who are technically oriented is the prediction of how people, and society at large, will respond to and therefore influence the development of that technology. Wikipedia is what it is today because of the collaborative nature of its editing process. I have no doubt that the "Intelligent Encyclopedia" envisioned by Atari didn't even dream of the possibility of it being community-edited.

sliverstorm 15y ago

When they say they "missed" it, they mean that they dreamed it up but did not understand the impact it would have. They glossed over it, assuming it would just be an "improvement" in the same way that longer battery life is an improvement. They did not consider the secondary and tertiary impacts; most importantly, en-mass community collaboration. The key is not actually even the wireless; remember, these are from 1982 when the internet as we know it did not yet exist. It is the global connectivity, period, not the wireless.

no_more_death 15y ago

People miss this. Technology makes us more human, not less. Technology creates new verbs ("email" me; "like" me, "follow" me). But we embrace only language that makes us more human, not less. People think that technology colonizes us. On the contrary, we colonize technology. However, humanity has good and evil sides. Trouble brews when the evil colonizes more effectively than the good. Preventing this is itself a "wicked problem."

jarin 15y ago

I think it's because back in the day, the mainframe mentality was predominant. Sit at a terminal, make the computer do something, and get the results back. In 1982, nobody thought email would become a mainstream form of communication, and CompuServe had recently introduced the first chat room.

glhaynes 15y ago
Also, TV and radio broadcasts formed a huge part of the mental model for how media was created and distributed.