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Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

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Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#101

Post by MagicMoonlight »

abraxas wrote: post #88
voxleone wrote: post #10

The folks who keep the power grid running, write compilers, secure the internet, and design dependable systems don’t get viral fame, but their contributions are far more critical. That imbalance is no small thing; it shapes who gets funded, who feels validated, and who decides to pursue a challenge that doesn’t promise a quick TikTok moment or a crypto-style valuation bump. A complex technological civilization depend…

> You can’t survive a steady erosion of mastery. That sounds like an onset of a certain type of dark age. Eventually the shiny bits will too fall off when the underlying foundation crumbles. It would be massively ironic if the age of the "electronic brains" brought about the demise of technological advancement.

Just look at current software.

Windows is maintained by morons, and gets shitter every year.

Linux is still written by a couple of people.

Once people like that die, nobody will know how to write operating systems. I certainly couldn’t remake Linux. There’s no way anyone born after 2000 could, their brains are mush.

All software is just shit piled on top of shit. Backends in JavaScript, interfaces which use an entire web browser behind the scenes…

Eventually you’ll have lead engineers at Apple who don’t know what computers really are anymore, but just keep trying to slop more JavaScript in layer 15 of their OS.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#102

Post by moritzwarhier »

hdtx54 wrote: post #49
voxleone wrote: post #10

The folks who keep the power grid running, write compilers, secure the internet, and design dependable systems don’t get viral fame, but their contributions are far more critical. That imbalance is no small thing; it shapes who gets funded, who feels validated, and who decides to pursue a challenge that doesn’t promise a quick TikTok moment or a crypto-style valuation bump. A complex technological civilization depend…

You think the power grid fell out of the head of some master craftsman thinking in decades? They dont teach the history of science for various reasons, but its basically a ledger of how over rated 3 inch chimp brain intelligence is. The power grid is thing of beauty. Today. But the path to that Beauty is one train wreck after another. Boiler explosions that kill hundreds. Wiring that burns down towns. Transformers th…

Very valuable point!

In addition to the limits of human planning and intellect, I'd also add incentives:

as cynical as it sounds, you won't get rewarded for building a more safe, robust and reliable machine or system, until it is agreed upon that the risks or problems you address actually occur, and that the costs for prevention actually pays off.

For example, there would be no insurances without laws and governments, because no person or company ever would pay into a promise that has never been held.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#103

Post by Abstract_Typist »

jcgrillo wrote: post #62
easton wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to SF three times, and each time the oddest thing was going down 101 from the airport and seeing cURL commands and "you sped past that just like we sped past Snowflake" and such on billboards. It's like being on another planet where everyone is at work. (on the other hand, in DC there's ads on the metro for new engine upgrades for fighter jets, and i've gotten used to that.)

I don't miss billboards. Cows, trees, mountains, and lumberyards make better scenery.

The trees are canonical though.

    I think that I shall never see
    A billboard lovely as a tree
    Indeed, unless the billboards fall
    I’ll never see a tree at all.

      Song of the Open Road   -  Ogden Nash

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#104

Post by rpcope1 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #77
FloorEgg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building a successful startup is very hard, and not just in the "it's a lot of hard work" sense, but also in terms of making good decisions. For the average person who went to college and worked in some other industry/capacity, the good decisions are very counterintuitive. Most VCs have no idea how to accuratly judge startups based on their core merit, or how to make good decision in startups (though they may think t…

So... You think it's because the VCs are conning their investors and those con-man are the best extend and pretend opportunities? I can believe in that. But just a couple of years ago it was clearly happening because the VCs wanted those people to sell the companies into some mark and return real money to them. I wonder when did the investors became the marks?

I mean whenever things like the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and SoftBank came into existence. They've been the biggest marks to unload your dumbest equity into for as long as I've been paying attention (so at least 10-15 years now), and at least as long as Jim Cramer and his ilk have been hyping dog shit IPOs to drop on clueless retail.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#105

Post by RealityVoid »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #101
abraxas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t survive a steady erosion of mastery. That sounds like an onset of a certain type of dark age. Eventually the shiny bits will too fall off when the underlying foundation crumbles. It would be massively ironic if the age of the "electronic brains" brought about the demise of technological advancement.

Just look at current software. Windows is maintained by morons, and gets shitter every year. Linux is still written by a couple of people. Once people like that die, nobody will know how to write operating systems. I certainly couldn’t remake Linux. There’s no way anyone born after 2000 could, their brains are mush. All software is just shit piled on top of shit. Backends in JavaScript, interfaces which use an entire…

> I certainly couldn’t remake Linux. There’s no way anyone born after 2000 could, their brains are mush.

This is certainly false. There are plenty of young people that are incredibly talented. I worked with some of them. And you can probably name some from the open source projects you follow.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#106

Post by csb6 »

It seems people have figured out that sociopathy and self-promotion are rewarded in the current culture and that being a con artist has essentially no consequences anymore. And all of it is done by ambitious people who are p-zombies, lacking an inner life or curiosity about anything but how to make more money.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#107

Post by piperswe »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #101
abraxas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t survive a steady erosion of mastery. That sounds like an onset of a certain type of dark age. Eventually the shiny bits will too fall off when the underlying foundation crumbles. It would be massively ironic if the age of the "electronic brains" brought about the demise of technological advancement.

Just look at current software. Windows is maintained by morons, and gets shitter every year. Linux is still written by a couple of people. Once people like that die, nobody will know how to write operating systems. I certainly couldn’t remake Linux. There’s no way anyone born after 2000 could, their brains are mush. All software is just shit piled on top of shit. Backends in JavaScript, interfaces which use an entire…

Young people's brains have always been mush, according to the older generation. Your brain is mush according to those older than you. The term for this is juvenoia, and it's as old as humanity.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#108

Post by HoldOnAMinute »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #101
abraxas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t survive a steady erosion of mastery. That sounds like an onset of a certain type of dark age. Eventually the shiny bits will too fall off when the underlying foundation crumbles. It would be massively ironic if the age of the "electronic brains" brought about the demise of technological advancement.

Just look at current software. Windows is maintained by morons, and gets shitter every year. Linux is still written by a couple of people. Once people like that die, nobody will know how to write operating systems. I certainly couldn’t remake Linux. There’s no way anyone born after 2000 could, their brains are mush. All software is just shit piled on top of shit. Backends in JavaScript, interfaces which use an entire…

Windows is being deliberately enshittified by rent-seekers.

Rent-seeking and Promo-seeking is the only motivation for the people with the power.

None of that class wants to make a better product, or make life better or easier for the people.

Re: Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking

#109

Post by HoldOnAMinute »

hdtx54 wrote: post #49
voxleone wrote: post #10

The folks who keep the power grid running, write compilers, secure the internet, and design dependable systems don’t get viral fame, but their contributions are far more critical. That imbalance is no small thing; it shapes who gets funded, who feels validated, and who decides to pursue a challenge that doesn’t promise a quick TikTok moment or a crypto-style valuation bump. A complex technological civilization depend…

You think the power grid fell out of the head of some master craftsman thinking in decades? They dont teach the history of science for various reasons, but its basically a ledger of how over rated 3 inch chimp brain intelligence is. The power grid is thing of beauty. Today. But the path to that Beauty is one train wreck after another. Boiler explosions that kill hundreds. Wiring that burns down towns. Transformers th…

It would all be undergrounded and made resilient, if it weren't for perverse incentives.
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