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The realization that in 2058 some people will be reading comments from 2025 Hacker News threads and will feel amused at all the things we were so confidently wr

The realization that in 2058 some people will be reading comments from 2025 Hacker News threads and will feel amused at all the things we were so confidently wrong about. ;)

the_cat_kittles 2y ago
hopefully people have progressed to the point where hn has been completely forgotten
- esseph 2y ago
  Are you sure? The husk of slashdot is still around.
deadbabe 2y ago
We’re not that optimistic about the future here.
- davidw 2y ago
  Maybe someone will hide a copy of HN in a durable format in a cave and someone will rediscover it one day.
  - jll29 2y ago
    Last time I checked, parchment was the most durable medium mankind ever used on a regular basis. I find it an interesting question to ponder what we consider worthwhile retaining for more than 2000 years (from my personal library, perhaps just the Bible, TAOCP, SICP, GEB and Feynman's physics lectures and some Bach organ scores). EDIT: PS: Among the things "Show HN" has not yet seen is a RasPi based parchment printer...
  - deadbabe 2y ago
    It would be an interesting project to create an entire archive of books of HN discussions and preserve them for hundreds of years for archivists to explore. I hope they find this comment.
nialse 2y ago
How about retrospective ranking of comments based on their ability to correctly predict the future? Call it Hacker Old Golds?
- _thisdot 2y ago
  Easily available are AskReddit threads from 2014 asking predictions about 2024
  - Onavo 2y ago
    Fun fact, Reddit only soft deletes your comments. So all those people using Reddit deletion/comment mangling services to protest only deprive their fellow users of their insights. Reddit Inc. can still sell your data.
    - Brian_K_White 2y ago
      It makes reddit less valuable as a source of info. I already click on reddit search results less after hitting now-dead search results a bunch of times. That's less views and less mindshare.
    - kazinator 2y ago
      Reddit will restore your comments even if you replace them with lorem ipsum with a script.
scarface_74 2y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32919 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32919 I don't think what the iphone supports will matter much in the long run, it's what devices like these nokias that will have the biggest impact on the future of mobile http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 ——— No one is going to stop developing in Flash or Java just because it doesn't work on iPhone. Those who wanna cater to the iPhone market will make a "watered down version" of the app. Just the way an m site is developed for mobile browser.Thats it. —— If another device maker come up with a cheaper phone with a more powerful browser, with support for Java and Flash, things will change. Always, the fittest will survive. Flash and java are necessary evils(if you think they are evil). —— So it will take 1 (one) must-have application written in Flash or Java to make iPhone buyers look like fools? Sounds okay to me. —— The computer based market will remain vastly larger than the phone based market. I don't have real numbers off hand, but lets assume 5% of web views are via cellphones
- thebeardisred 2y ago
  2007 was looking pretty hot - http://web.archive.org/web/20070707022624/http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 http://web.archive.org/web/20070707022624/http://www.nokia.c...
  - Sharlin 2y ago
    Uh, as the page says, these were cheap feature phones for emerging markets. In 2007 Nokia had smartphones vastly more capable than the original iPhone. They just didn’t have a large touchscreen.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    And the all knowing pg said that the iPhone will never have more than 5% market share https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083 I mean it had more space than the Nomad and wireless. What else could he have wanted?
    - xanderlewis 2y ago
npsomaratna 2y ago
Back in the '90s, I read a book called the "Zen of Windows 95 Programming." The author started off with (paraphrased) "If you're reading this 25 years in the future, and are having a laugh, here's the state of things in '95" I did re-read that section again 25 years later...
- layer8 2y ago
  Did you have a laugh?
jppope 2y ago
I am terrified to read my own comments from a year ago... I can't even imagine 25 or 30 years from now.
- daviddever23box 2y ago
  <^> this - adaptability is of far greater utility than stubbornness.
- StefanBatory 2y ago
  I'm afraid to read what I wrote last month, I cringe at the though of myself reading old posts.
- Karellen 2y ago
  Don't focus on how naive you were then, think about how much you've grown since. Well done! Imagine if you don't learn anything new in the next 25 years, and all your opinions stay completely stagnant. What a waste of 25 years that will be.
- lproven 2y ago
  You probably will. I mean, here's a piece of mine from 25 years ago. https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorldMagazine/PCW%20200007%20July%20Created%20From%20PCW%20Cover%20CD%20%28No%20Cover%29/page/n50/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorldMagazine/PC... I stand by that. But I wrote things for the Register when I started there full-time 3.3 years ago that now I look at with some regret. I'm learning. I'm changing. We all learn and we all change. That is good. When you stop changing, you are dead. Don't be worried about changing your mind. Be worried about if you stop doing so.
lizknope 2y ago
Back around 2003 our director said "This customer wants to put our camera chip in a phone." I thought it was a dumb idea. I remember when the first iPhone was released in Jan 2007 that Jobs said all the non-Apple apps would be HTML based. I thought it was dumb. Release a development environment and there will be thousands of apps that do stuff they couldn't even think of. The App Store was started in July 2008.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

The realization that in 2058 some people will be reading comments from 2025 Hacker News threads and will feel amused at all the things we were so confidently wrong about. ;)

the_cat_kittles 2y ago

hopefully people have progressed to the point where hn has been completely forgotten

esseph 2y ago
Are you sure? The husk of slashdot is still around.

deadbabe 2y ago

We’re not that optimistic about the future here.

davidw 2y ago
Maybe someone will hide a copy of HN in a durable format in a cave and someone will rediscover it one day.
- jll29 2y ago
  Last time I checked, parchment was the most durable medium mankind ever used on a regular basis. I find it an interesting question to ponder what we consider worthwhile retaining for more than 2000 years (from my personal library, perhaps just the Bible, TAOCP, SICP, GEB and Feynman's physics lectures and some Bach organ scores). EDIT: PS: Among the things "Show HN" has not yet seen is a RasPi based parchment printer...
- deadbabe 2y ago
  It would be an interesting project to create an entire archive of books of HN discussions and preserve them for hundreds of years for archivists to explore. I hope they find this comment.

nialse 2y ago

How about retrospective ranking of comments based on their ability to correctly predict the future? Call it Hacker Old Golds?

_thisdot 2y ago
Easily available are AskReddit threads from 2014 asking predictions about 2024
- Onavo 2y ago
  Fun fact, Reddit only soft deletes your comments. So all those people using Reddit deletion/comment mangling services to protest only deprive their fellow users of their insights. Reddit Inc. can still sell your data.
  - Brian_K_White 2y ago
    It makes reddit less valuable as a source of info. I already click on reddit search results less after hitting now-dead search results a bunch of times. That's less views and less mindshare.
  - kazinator 2y ago
    Reddit will restore your comments even if you replace them with lorem ipsum with a script.

scarface_74 2y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32919 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32919 I don't think what the iphone supports will matter much in the long run, it's what devices like these nokias that will have the biggest impact on the future of mobile http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 ——— No one is going to stop developing in Flash or Java just because it doesn't work on iPhone. Those who wanna cater to the iPhone market will make a "watered down version" of the app. Just the way an m site is developed for mobile browser.Thats it. —— If another device maker come up with a cheaper phone with a more powerful browser, with support for Java and Flash, things will change. Always, the fittest will survive. Flash and java are necessary evils(if you think they are evil). —— So it will take 1 (one) must-have application written in Flash or Java to make iPhone buyers look like fools? Sounds okay to me. —— The computer based market will remain vastly larger than the phone based market. I don't have real numbers off hand, but lets assume 5% of web views are via cellphones

thebeardisred 2y ago
2007 was looking pretty hot - http://web.archive.org/web/20070707022624/http://www.nokia.com/A4405104 http://web.archive.org/web/20070707022624/http://www.nokia.c...
- Sharlin 2y ago
  Uh, as the page says, these were cheap feature phones for emerging markets. In 2007 Nokia had smartphones vastly more capable than the original iPhone. They just didn’t have a large touchscreen.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  And the all knowing pg said that the iPhone will never have more than 5% market share https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33083 I mean it had more space than the Nomad and wireless. What else could he have wanted?
  - xanderlewis 2y ago

npsomaratna 2y ago

Back in the '90s, I read a book called the "Zen of Windows 95 Programming." The author started off with (paraphrased) "If you're reading this 25 years in the future, and are having a laugh, here's the state of things in '95" I did re-read that section again 25 years later...

layer8 2y ago
Did you have a laugh?

jppope 2y ago

I am terrified to read my own comments from a year ago... I can't even imagine 25 or 30 years from now.

daviddever23box 2y ago
<^> this - adaptability is of far greater utility than stubbornness.
StefanBatory 2y ago
I'm afraid to read what I wrote last month, I cringe at the though of myself reading old posts.
Karellen 2y ago
Don't focus on how naive you were then, think about how much you've grown since. Well done! Imagine if you don't learn anything new in the next 25 years, and all your opinions stay completely stagnant. What a waste of 25 years that will be.
lproven 2y ago
You probably will. I mean, here's a piece of mine from 25 years ago. https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorldMagazine/PCW%20200007%20July%20Created%20From%20PCW%20Cover%20CD%20%28No%20Cover%29/page/n50/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorldMagazine/PC... I stand by that. But I wrote things for the Register when I started there full-time 3.3 years ago that now I look at with some regret. I'm learning. I'm changing. We all learn and we all change. That is good. When you stop changing, you are dead. Don't be worried about changing your mind. Be worried about if you stop doing so.

lizknope 2y ago

Back around 2003 our director said "This customer wants to put our camera chip in a phone." I thought it was a dumb idea. I remember when the first iPhone was released in Jan 2007 that Jobs said all the non-Apple apps would be HTML based. I thought it was dumb. Release a development environment and there will be thousands of apps that do stuff they couldn't even think of. The App Store was started in July 2008.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]