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IMG_0416 (2024)

ben-mini.com

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Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#21

It’s wild how antique the iPhone interface design looks. It’s not THAT old.

It's 19 years since the iPhone came out, that's almost two decades. 19 years before the iPhone was 1988. Things from 1988 definitely seemed dated in 2007. In fact I think style/aesthetics change is now getting slower and slower. Anything within the last 10 years looks like it could have been made today, since the image resolution / quality doesn't significantly change in such an obvious way. Throughout the 90s and 00…

The rate at which AI is accelerating seems the same as other big inventions.

Some examples:

- Tim invented the WWW in 1989, but I'd took until around 2000 (10 years) to go to the web we now know with Streaming and Social Media.

- The first big mobile success (Nokia 3310) was in 2000, the 'end-stage' phone (iPhone 5 or something) was also 10 years later.

- Google Deepdream was in 2016, to "Will Smith eating spaghetti" in 2023, to now AI generated video literally unrecognisable from real.

I think we will be seeing some 'end-stage' AI in the next 5 years too, where the rate of improvements will sharply drop.

Robotics will probably be next? First company that can create an all purpose robot.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#22

It’s wild how antique the iPhone interface design looks. It’s not THAT old.

It looked old when it was fresh already.

When it comes to iPhones, iPhone 4 and iOS 7 were the first ones that looked modern and pleasant (don't confuse aesthetics with UX though).

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#23
post #6

I read this article when it was new and I've shared it with a bunch of people because it it unbelievably fascinating to me. There's something borderline "voyeuristic" (for want of a better term) about it. There are all these videos that are public, I'm allowed to watch them, but they were clearly not meant for me to watch. It's like when you see a family photo at a Goodwill or something. It's definitely worth trying…

> There are all these videos that are public, I'm allowed to watch them, but they were clearly not meant for me to watch.

I disagree. I think most people probably intended them to be public and thought it would be cool if people watched – that was the attitude back then. In the early stages of web 2.0 people who were online would share everything and anything. Social media was public by default and no one really had a problem with it.

It was in the years that followed the launch of the iphone and the mass-adoption of the internet that various incidents caused companies and people to realise they needed to be more careful about what was shared publicly online.

I think the appeal of these videos is that they're authentic and highlight something we've lost today, not that they're "voyeuristic".

Most videos people watch on YouTube today have high production value, even most TikTok creators which show up on the "For You" page are professional content creators. Additionally, this was back in an era where people didn't really care about their public/online persona, and act as such.

It's not just a time capsule... It an alternative reality where people are not overly self-conscious about their image and where the internet is full of real people sharing real and rather mediocre things that are happening in their life, rather than curated moments to serve the advertisement interests of corporations. And it's an alternative reality which existed just 15-20 years ago. These people are not that dissimilar from us, but live in a completely different, far more authentic world.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 19 years since the iPhone came out, that's almost two decades. 19 years before the iPhone was 1988. Things from 1988 definitely seemed dated in 2007. In fact I think style/aesthetics change is now getting slower and slower. Anything within the last 10 years looks like it could have been made today, since the image resolution / quality doesn't significantly change in such an obvious way. Throughout the 90s and 00…

The rate at which AI is accelerating seems the same as other big inventions. Some examples: - Tim invented the WWW in 1989, but I'd took until around 2000 (10 years) to go to the web we now know with Streaming and Social Media. - The first big mobile success (Nokia 3310) was in 2000, the 'end-stage' phone (iPhone 5 or something) was also 10 years later. - Google Deepdream was in 2016, to "Will Smith eating spaghetti"…

My point was more about how dated something feels, how much it esthetically feels like a different dusty era.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#25
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems our fingers have gotten thinner, or more skillful at tapping at relatively tinier buttons now. Look at how huge those buttons are. I am aware screen size has increased tremendously, even then I think the buttons were still quite huge compared to the size of today's tappable links.

> It seems our fingers have gotten thinner Of course not. It's actually way simpler: smartphones became taller and heavier and you no longer can use it with one hand anymore even if you are 2m tall man. So the main mode of interaction changed to a two-hand mode and one-hand is relegated for the doom scrolling, selfies and quick replies. Hell, my Moto has a special one-handed mode! >> Use one-handed mode >> Want to us…

As an aside - I am a slightly under 2m tall man and I still use my phone with one hand. I still use a 7” tablet with one hand as well.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#27
post #12

It's worth noting that while these videos may have been unintentional, this was also an era when youtube was still inventing itself. Sure, there was real content creation, but the structures of sponsors and ad revenue that can be a real income today weren't there. Let's plays were just starting to dominate the platform, and people were still figuring out how to make money off of that. As a result, there was a lot of…

I love wondering if and how this kind of "Wild West frontier" in technology and communication and social interaction will ever come again: Say we colonize Mars. Streaming anything from Earth takes hours (well 3-22 light minutes). Martians may invent their own planetary social network and share their own weird Martian memes for a while. Or interstellar colony ships traveling for decades between the stars, and then pra…

Any time someone carves out a new space online, the same sort of thing happens. Pioneers create infrastructure. Early adopters rush to explore the new medium. New possibilities or new constraints spur creativity. Then, usually one of two things happens: the new space was a brief fad, and it dies away; or the masses arrive and it undergoes an eternal September, standardization, commercialization, enshittification, drama… in other words, becomes integrated into the wider net. Those fed up leave and begin to carve out a new space…

Some initiatives (like the Gemini Protocol) remain (for now) in a tenuous niche where mass adoption seems impossible and yet they also don’t seem to be going away.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#28
post #12

It's worth noting that while these videos may have been unintentional, this was also an era when youtube was still inventing itself. Sure, there was real content creation, but the structures of sponsors and ad revenue that can be a real income today weren't there. Let's plays were just starting to dominate the platform, and people were still figuring out how to make money off of that. As a result, there was a lot of…

Yeah, the _reason_ this was in the iPhone is that YouTube was a normal and reasonable (if unusual - because sharing videos online was unusual) way to share videos with friends and family. And people cared way less about privacy back then.

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mars' gravity is only 38% of Earth so I think quite a few would be crazy feats of strength or odd trajectories of objects. At least they would be if I were making them.

I would like, subscribe and hit the bell icon

I bet I could throw a football a quarter mile... ;)

Re: IMG_0416 (2024)

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 19 years since the iPhone came out, that's almost two decades. 19 years before the iPhone was 1988. Things from 1988 definitely seemed dated in 2007. In fact I think style/aesthetics change is now getting slower and slower. Anything within the last 10 years looks like it could have been made today, since the image resolution / quality doesn't significantly change in such an obvious way. Throughout the 90s and 00…

The rate at which AI is accelerating seems the same as other big inventions. Some examples: - Tim invented the WWW in 1989, but I'd took until around 2000 (10 years) to go to the web we now know with Streaming and Social Media. - The first big mobile success (Nokia 3310) was in 2000, the 'end-stage' phone (iPhone 5 or something) was also 10 years later. - Google Deepdream was in 2016, to "Will Smith eating spaghetti"…

>AI generated video literally unrecognisable from real.

What?? Not even close

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