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For people who agree that Instagram, for example, is a small idea. I am going to leave you with an excerpt from a Hal Abelson lecture: "Now, the reason that we
by arihant 14y ago
For people who agree that Instagram, for example, is a small idea. I am going to leave you with an excerpt from a Hal Abelson lecture:
"Now, the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments. And that is, when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use. And indeed, on some absolute scale of things, we probably know less about the essence of computer science than the ancient Egyptians really knew about geometry.
Well, what do I mean by the essence of computer science? What do I mean by the essence of geometry? See, it's certainly true that these Egyptians went off and used surveying instruments, but when we look back on them after a couple of thousand years, we say, gee, what they were doing, the important stuff they were doing, was to begin to formalize notions about space and time, to start a way of talking about mathematical truths formally. hat led to the axiomatic method. That led to sort of all of modern mathematics, figuring out a way to talk precisely about so-called declarative knowledge, what is true.
Well, similarly, I think in the future people will look back and say, yes, those primitives in the 20th century were fiddling around with these gadgets called computers, but really what they were doing is starting to learn how to formalize intuitions about process, how to do things, starting to develop a way to talk precisely about how-to knowledge, as opposed to geometry that talks about what is true."
Ideas do not have to be earth shaking breakthroughs to push the human race forward. Things build on each other, effect of which is often missed.
There is wisdom is thinking long term, but not too long. The mental trap smart people fall into of thinking their idea should make an impact that will last longer and deeper only makes them vulnerable of being wrong. When you're just scratching the surface and don't know what's beneath, it's better to keep scratching than to speculate.
Even in short term, "no wireless, less space than a Nomad" changed the music industry. "Just a bigger iPod touch" is changing education.
- angersock 14y agoDude, it's Instagram. It lets you add faux vintage to your pictures. Building pyramids we are not.
- ryanwaggoner 14y agoWrong. It's a network of tens of millions of people sharing data about their day-to-day life.
- angersock 14y agoMy functional description is not inaccurate, nor is yours. However, the poster I replied to did not substantiate the analogy and comparison of: nascent computer science::geometry Instagram::pyramids There's a bunch of fluff in the post, as well as much poorly-articulated navel-gazing. Also, something I begrudge about the comparison: Ancient geometry had nowhere near the formalism and maturity of study that computer science as a field does. And even if it did? Computer science doesn't seem to be closer than arms-reach to most projects. Hell, your modern operations and engineering in many cases is just throwing together other people's libraries and fiddling with config files until you have a liquidity event that lets you buy real talent--themselves pretty far removed from the greats of the field of computer science. About the only thing the pyramids and your socialized twitterscapegrams have in common is the waste of thousands of man-years of productivity and intellect in the pursuit of ego and fleeting fame. Seriously, folks, let's not treat our industry with such gravitas.
- arihant 14y agoI did not imply that Instagram (or any similar product) is like a pyramid. All I said that if it is a step towards building one, there is no way to know this, yet. Things that ultimately become useful are most of times never conceived in a straight trajectory. It's a curvy road. Claiming Instagram was a bad turn is just purely naive conjecture by people who delude themselves into thinking they have the magic map. All we know is, more people than most countries' populations are using this invention to make their lives better. For me at least, Instagram was a massive shift in Camera interaction. I have never captured random moments on daily basis like that before. I only took pictures when I thought I visited some place important, not that great coffee I had in some new city. A good memory to have captured.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- alberich 14y agohow is the "bigger ipod touch" changing education? I mean, really, what is so great about and ipad that is changing education for better? Or are you talking about just a change in methodology and not quality?
- dtx 14y agoI currently intern for a company that does e-education for probably the biggest education services vendor in the world. My team owns the test delivery engine, including on mobile platforms. a more intuitive touch interface is always easier for students to give tests on, that and more interactive questions, more colors and realtime assistance, analytics, central and quick test dispatch, quicker assessments and well anytime access being 'mobile', tracking. Doing all that is impossible with paper based education, and only some of it is possible using desktop. And besides, change in quality arises from change in methodology. The two are not mutually exclusive.
- zerostar07 14y agoLet's keep perspective here: Instagram is a popular photo-filtering gadget. If it disappeared in a day, the human race would not be pushed backwards at all.
- arihant 14y agoFollowing that logic, you would conclude that if Apple disappeared in 1997, we would be exactly at same place of progress?
- zerostar07 14y agoIf a company disappeared, the people who worked there would be equally productive elsewhere.