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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not think we are referring to Toy's literal meaning here. IMO, Toy here means something insignificant that a few people/small market uses.
Exactly. Those of you that are hung up on toy meaning a literal toy or video game with no intrinsic value can replace the word toy with "gimmick" or "novelty" or even "a serious idea that won't scale" ( http://paulgraham.com/ds.html ). Early Air Bed and Breakfast charging people for couch surfing and selling Obama O's ( https://www.airbnb.com/obamaos ) to fund their startup definitely feels toy like to me. I'd argue…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't appear to be true, Duryea and Benz vehicles (ICE burning petrol/gasoline in the late 1800s) appear to have replaced bicycles and horse-drawn carriages and acted as functional means of transportation, rather than "toys". Earlier electric and hydrogen powered vehicles I've seen appear similarly to have been created as functional replacements for horse-drawn vehicles. Maybe you could expand your comment to…
https://www.leaderherald.com/news/local-news/2019/07/when-au... https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/toys-rich
The second in turn links to https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/climate-change-will-push-ca... . When they say "cars are an expensive toy for the rich" they're saying figuratively that cars aren't reliable nor efficient. I don't think anyone would disagree that [important, useful] new technologies tend to get cheaper and more efficient over time.
It's really not clear, if this is the sort of backing to the "toy" claim what it is hoped to prove?
The early users appeared to use cars for transportation, which the second link doesn't contradict, so not literal toys. The "toy" claim is just a perjorative that the link appears, implicitly, to say was used by those who were already profiting from horse related industry.
Observation: "comic book" movies today are largely not suitable for non-teenage children (practically all rated PG-13). What was literary version of "toy" is now 9-digit-budget blockbusters.
I have a question for those who were there at the very beginning of the internet. I heard that many were skeptical about both personal computers and the internet.. did it feel the same as it does right now with crypto-currency/quantum-computing? I wasn't there, but on my side, it feels like people were able to use internet right from the beginning, whereas there's a bigger leap to using crypto/quantum. Is it just tha…
Need Magazine articles and TV shows at the time were hyping the internet and the web. I think they were about right. Mainstream media didn’t really catch on until the 00s.
I was anticipating a complete revolution that would change everything. I remember repeatedly telling my parents how it was going to change the world. They weren’t dismissive but also didn’t think it was really going to be something for them. Eventually they relented and I got a modem - so I could surf the small number of websites available.
In retrospect I was incorrect in that it has changed everything more than I imagined it would. I didn’t see mobile phones as the main access point, for example.
As for the comparison with crypto and quantum, only quantum has the potential to make a comparable impact on our lives and it would likely be totally different in that quantum will be indirectly impactful, at least for the foreseeable future, whereas the internet was and is most impactful when actually used by the individual. It feels a bit silly to compare crypto (a clever but relatively simple idea for electronic currency that is currently producing a lot of CO2 and suffers from other huge problems) vs quantum computing (a revolutionary technology that has and will require major breakthroughs in theoretical physical and engineering, vast sums of investment and some of the smartest minds working for generations to enable previously unrealisable control of the physical word and paradigm-shifting computation). Real quantum is also a long way off.
If you want a more near-term tech that I am as excited about now as I was about the internet in the 90s, it is without a doubt VR. It’s going to change everything.
Looking forward, smart homes and 3D printing are 2 industries that fall in this bucket. Both feel like toys to the majority of the market right now, but have the potential to completely change how we live.
3D printing - low-cost manufacturing has completely revolutionized what's possible for startups, and developed a large hobbyist following, but we haven't scratched the surface of how they can change day-to-day life for everybody. Imagine what's possible once they support more material types (metal, electrical circuits, food, etc) and every home has one, like an oven.
Smart homes - we just have fancy remote controls so far, but eventually we'll be living like Tony Stark with homes that constantly adapt to us without input. This is where we'll see the benefit of ambient computing present itself clearest. Imagine a home that helps you raise your child, keep your chores in order, or handle the repetitive tasks without requiring a primary care-taker to be responsible for keeping the home in order.
disclaimer: I'm building Hiome (https://hiome.com) to turn smart homes into more than just toys, so maybe I'm a little biased.
Imo if a statement about the future doesn't contain word "probably" - it is probably wrong.
probably.. suppose... it seems to me.. I hate it when people try and hedge their opinions.
Communicating confidence is useful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.leaderherald.com/news/local-news/2019/07/when-au... https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/toys-rich
Your first link is blocked for me by the website owner. The second in turn links to https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/climate-change-will-push-ca... . When they say "cars are an expensive toy for the rich" they're saying figuratively that cars aren't reliable nor efficient. I don't think anyone would disagree that [important, useful] new technologies tend to get cheaper and more efficient over time. It's really not cl…
The oft-printed statement that early automobiles were ‘playthings of the rich’ until Henry Ford’s super-cheap Model T started rolling off the assembly line in October 1908, is easily proven by scanning the makes of high-priced chariots and their wealthy owners who participated in the Amsterdam Evening Recorder’s Saturday, July 10, 1909 “Sociability Run” from Amsterdam to Lake Luzerne.
Everything I've ever seen indicates cars were considered to be "toys" for the rich when they first came out. Roads were not really designed for them. They were insanely expensive. They were not generally considered to be serious new tech that would eventually compete as transportation.
That changed when Henry Ford made cars affordable for the masses.
Old laws often said things like "You must have someone walk in front of your car ringing a bell so you don't spook the horses." This implicitly tells you that early cars were also extremely slow and horses were the form of serious transportation that the culture revolved around.
Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1029069