They could be optimistic because they didn’t get suckered by what tech has become. It is the same kind of optimism that can be found in Engelbart’s preamble to

They could be optimistic because they didn’t get suckered by what tech has become. It is the same kind of optimism that can be found in Engelbart’s preamble to the mother of all demos. The idea that one could treat a program delivered by google, facebook or amazon as something to cooperate with rather than use warily is much harder now than it was then.