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Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

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Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#161

Post by koonsolo »

rob74 wrote: post #67
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

I agree that it's partly an age thing, but I also agree that the times have been more exciting in the past technology-wise. I grew up as a eighties tech geek kid. I learned BASIC on a SHARP programmable calculator ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_PC-1403 ), then moved on to an Atari 800, then to an Amiga, and finally to a PC. Each of these machines was orders of magnitude more capable than the previous one - you…

Are you crazy? I'm from '79, so probably a bit younger than you.

We can now buy an Arduino board for the price of a computer game, and make a flying drone. Even with a small camera or some sensors if you want. Or create some small robots with all the motors and sensors that you want, custom 3d printed.

My son is now 13 and doing STEM. I only wish I had access to all the things that they can now do for cheap, especially all the robotics and drone stuff. Plus, the amount of info on the internet is amazing and quickly accessible anywhere.

I agree that the old days were a lot of fun, but if I had to choose, I would want to be 13 nowadays instead of the 80s or 90s.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#162

Post by randomdata »

bluescrn wrote: post #131
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

There's also the fact that much modern tech tends to be very locked-down, discourages tinkering/creativity, and is built to push ads/subscriptions/in-app-purchases. But there's rarely a 'wow' factor to new tech any more. Everything is incremental improvement and the era of huge leaps forward is well behind us. The step up from a C64 to an Amiga, or a SNES to a Playstation, or an early iPhone from a feature phone, or…

> But there's rarely a 'wow' factor to new tech any more.

John Deere started commercially selling a self-driving tractor this year. That's a pretty big wow. Something straight out of the sci-fi books.

I think it doesn't pop because the internet has been streaming the development of such tech for the last decade or more. It seems incremental because we have had insights into the development process, which is something the masses didn't have access to when Windows 3.1 or the C64 landed.

Gone are the days of decades of behind the scenes R&D suddenly landing in our laps to amaze us. We now watch the R&D unfold in realtime.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#163

Post by gilbetron »

tiluha wrote: post #139
hwers wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? I'd like to hear the take of someone in their early twenties on this. My feeling is that a lot of them are terrified by it themselves too.

I'm 22. I feel like there hasn't been any major technologcal shift since ~2014. Phones have gotten faster and more capable, but are still mostly the same. Social media has gotten bigger, but hasn't innovated in a meaningful way. "AI" has gotten better which is fascinating, but in the end it will most likely just be used for manipulation, surveillance and manipulation. I can't really think of any technology to look fo…

Autonomous cars, AI/ML, and fusion are three things that will significantly change our world in the next decade or so. There will absolutely be downsides, but that's how tech works! And this doesn't even get into biological spheres of tech!

Also, remember, people in 2005 had same thoughts as you're having right now! Throughout my entire life, people have been saying that tech and science is basically done. They've always been wrong, and I don't see an end in sight.

It's the nature of exponentials. They seem slow and then suddenly the world changes. Only a handful of people actually can see that it is going to happen. We're just linear creatures with no intuition for exponential growth.

Imagine sitting in a dark room and someone about to turn on a switch - up until the switch is flicked, it doesn't seem like anything is going to happen, and then suddenly you are reeling at the brightness. That's how tech innovation happens now. I bet in a decade you'll be looking back saying, holy shit, I did not see that coming about something! "Remember when we used to drive gas vehicles?" or "Remember when we thought fusion was impossible?" or "Remember when nobody owned a robot?" Who knows what it is, but there will be something!

In 2014, almost nobody thought about having an app on their phone to summon a car to take them somewhere. Now it is everywhere (and struggling!). In 2014, speech recognition was awful. Now we have an automated robot lady that will answer spam calls for you!

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#164

Post by crobertsbmw »

eternauta3k wrote: post #147
nicoburns wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> technological progress is still going on, but it's more "your smartphone can now do what your desktop PC did 20 years ago, or your laptop did 10 years ago" In terms of tech that would excite a geeky kid, I think it's more like "you can now buy a $1 microcontroller that's as powerful as desktop PC from 30 years ago". Which is pretty exciting as it means you can throw computing power at all sorts of real world automa…

What microcontroller are you thinking of?

MSP430 g series are under a dollar depending on what package you get. The DIP package is a little more expensive than the Smaller TSSOP but they are incredibly powerful.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#167

Post by anthk »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #152
davidn20 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely an age thing. Don't get me wrong, I know OP feeling all too well. But, it's like complaining about how the music I grew with was the best music. It's more likely the curiosity in you die, rather than the world running out of stuff to be curious about.

I don't think so. There are waves throughout history where, at times, it's the Wild West and the opportunities and possibilities abound. One such time was when the Internet had become a global backbone, hardware prices were racing to the bottom, we were seeing new display (LCD) technology, battery tech.... But then Corporations happened. Ads moved in to dominate the web, dollar-chasing sites (also often corporate) dr…

BBS' -> tildes, Gopher rebirth and Gemini.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#168

Post by supernovae »

bee_rider wrote: post #155
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You kind of made my point. Not as many people are "locked in a factory 80 hours a week" that is driven by technology (which includes hardware tech). When a new car manufacturing plant opens and says they will create 250 jobs that is far less than it was 20-30 years ago when a new plant opened. Robotic manufacturing, software, etc. have driven that. Pick any industry and technology will have driven some jobs out of it…

It is absurd that we've somehow managed to create a system where manufacturing is too easy, doesn't employ enough people, and that's a looming crisis. If production per person increases, let's give everyone a couple days off.

yeah, that's what we should be doing...

People shouldn't do back breaking work that robots are better at and going back to treating humans like robots ins't a solution - working less is a viable option and the promise of tech. I'd happily work 20 hours a week to split my job between two people because the diversity pays off in spades and we'd all do better working less anyway

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#169

Post by stonemetal12 »

rcarmo wrote: post #26
gilbetron wrote: post #13

It's an age thing - the dreams you had when you were younger didn't turn into reality - dreams usually don't. Or at least, not as you expect it. Tech is still really cool, compared to decades ago. But we have so much of it and it is everywhere, that we re-calibrate and think that all this amazing, cool tech is boring. You can get a 3D printer for a few hundred bucks, build it yourself, build a better 3d printer, get…

To your point about 3D printing and robots, we haven’t really moved the needle that much. We’ve made it easy for anyone to print a “cool” robot, sure, but it isn’t necessarily a _useful_ one. As a former “maker” and electronics hack I think lot of maker stuff has devolved into “cool” stuff that consists of wire hangers and servos with RGB lighting and very little actual value. But coolness doesn’t really mean much wh…

Part of it has, but then there are those guys working on 3d printing houses.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#170

Post by supernovae »

xnorswap wrote: post #92
supernovae wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still get indy games year over year that take the industry by storm. factorio, stardew valley, undertale, don’t starve, super hot, goat simulator, cup head, rocket league, kerbal space program and so many others. heck steam, Sony and Microsoft are competing to distribute this IP and open it up across platforms and it’s never been better.

All of those games you've mentioned are at least 5 years old now, many coming up to a decade old if you count their early access. There was a golden age of indie gaming 5-10 years ago, but it does feel like that has passed somewhat.

That's just all i could think of.. there are many more out right now
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