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Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

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Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#61

Post by neild »

joebadmo wrote: post #47
neild wrote: post #39

My first computer booted into a BASIC interpreter. That was pretty awesome, and gave me an early window into programming. On the other hand, it didn't have a lot of things. It didn't have a text editor. It didn't have anything other than a BASIC interpreter. I knew that the games I played on that machine weren't written in BASIC, but I didn't know where to go to learn how they were made. My current computer, made by…

I think the author's point is that the post-PC era implies that the golden age you're describing is dying, replaced with a clean future, wherein people don't have computers with text editors and that can run interpreters and compilers etc. The children of the post-PC future will only have access to iPads. Or Kindle Fires, as pure a consumption device as I can imagine.

The children of the post-PC future will only have access to iPads. Or Kindle Fires, as pure a consumption device as I can imagine.

Why would you think that would happen?

And while I'm at it, why is "consumption device" an insult? Books are consumption devices. Nobody sneers at a child with a book.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#62

Post by gergles »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #48

This guy needs a better metaphor. Imagine a world where Legos didn't exist? But Legos do exist. It has probably never been easier to be a Lego hobbyist. What this guy should do is come up with an actual example of a hobby that has died out because the parts are no longer available. Used Model-T Fords. Urban horse infrastructure. Manual typewriters. Dial telephones. What one realizes is that actual extinct things are…

The point is that the "post-PC era" will make it so that being someone who thinks that you can modify or change the computing experience is relegated to "oddball hobby" status, like it would be if someone today wanted to start playing with vacuum tubes.

The current PC ecosystem lets you explore and create and play and learn on the same tools that you use to consume. You can build a lego kit with the instructions, or you can use the pieces and make something that's uniquely you. You can run the apps on Windows that you download, or you can write your own without asking for anybody's permission.

In the magical "post-PC" world, where everyone is inexplicably using an iPad, you can run what Apple says, period, and if you want to develop something they don't approve of, welp, too bad.

This loss of flexibility, exploration, and sense of wonder is bad for future computing developments and bad for future computer users.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#63

Post by freshhawk »

ary wrote: post #43

In the presence of each and every person living in an industrialized society are multiple devices running embedded software that is difficult to modify. Those devices are programmed using more flexible systems which to this very second are programmable any way you like. Where is the outrage over the hacker unfriendliness of my refrigerator? The iPad, iPhone, Android, and comparable devices are a hybrid of PC-like and…

Can you explain how open vs closed systems relate to user interface or experience issues? Those are orthogonal to each other, Apple made two choices here, not one.

I understand the reasons for the move towards closed systems. A combination of media provider demands, funding coming from advertising and user tracking and the standard walled garden land rush when a new market opens up.

> This argument ... is tired ... please stop whining

Oh, fuck you. Seriously. Your high school level libertarian argument about why you don't want a public discourse about the direction of technological openness and the cultural and market forces around it is remarkably silly considering you are posting this on Hacker News on the god damn World Wide Web.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#64

Post by rdouble »

gergles wrote: post #62
mechanical_fish wrote: post #48

This guy needs a better metaphor. Imagine a world where Legos didn't exist? But Legos do exist. It has probably never been easier to be a Lego hobbyist. What this guy should do is come up with an actual example of a hobby that has died out because the parts are no longer available. Used Model-T Fords. Urban horse infrastructure. Manual typewriters. Dial telephones. What one realizes is that actual extinct things are…

The point is that the "post-PC era" will make it so that being someone who thinks that you can modify or change the computing experience is relegated to "oddball hobby" status, like it would be if someone today wanted to start playing with vacuum tubes. The current PC ecosystem lets you explore and create and play and learn on the same tools that you use to consume. You can build a lego kit with the instructions, or…

The point is that the "post-PC era" will make it so that being someone who thinks that you can modify or change the computing experience is relegated to "oddball hobby" status

It was like that during the pre post-PC era, anyway.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#65

Post by joebadmo »

neild wrote: post #61
joebadmo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author's point is that the post-PC era implies that the golden age you're describing is dying, replaced with a clean future, wherein people don't have computers with text editors and that can run interpreters and compilers etc. The children of the post-PC future will only have access to iPads. Or Kindle Fires, as pure a consumption device as I can imagine.

The children of the post-PC future will only have access to iPads. Or Kindle Fires, as pure a consumption device as I can imagine. Why would you think that would happen? And while I'm at it, why is "consumption device" an insult? Books are consumption devices. Nobody sneers at a child with a book.

Sorry, that part was hyperbolic. But it's true that what the author is describing is the end of precisely the golden age you desribe. To whatever degree consumption devices replace production devices, there will be less exposure to them.

It's not an insult. But consumption devices are lamentable as far as they replace production devices. I love books, and I don't sneer at children who read them. But I would like all children to have access and exposure to writing tools so they realize that they too make books.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#66

Post by freshhawk »

nbashaw wrote: post #10

True, our kids won't grow up hacking the same systems we did, just like we didn't grow up hacking the same systems as our parents. But there is something basic to the human spirit that guarantees as long as this branch of the gene pool is still around, we'll still tinker and build and create. It's just that the blocks are constantly changing. Which keeps things interesting, and is a good thing.

That's true, I have no worry that "the future" is going to be worse.

But that's long term, it doesn't mean that we don't want to avoid repeating the eras where this kind of tinkering was repressed or legislated against. Those eras slow down innovation and take wasted effort to recover from.

Just look at what happened on the web when all those tinkerers stopped having to break into the tools they wanted to use and could spend all their energy doing new things.

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#67

Post by ugh »

vacri wrote: post #59
kristopolous wrote: post #53

In 1951 you could have whined, "With the rise of pro-grammable computers, the Engineer can simply turn his brain off and let the computer do all the work. The era of craftsmanship has come to a close. No, no need to think dear friend, we have ourselves a Computer. Aughh!" Then, in 1961 you could have sighed, "The knowledge of how to maintain a computer will be gone forever with this increase in reliability. How will…

And if you did, you'd be missing the point. The explosion of computing in the general public over the past 20 years has seen the explosion of innovation - "the internet", as an industry, is really only 15 years old. Not even that. And yet it's innovated and transformed forever our modern societies. That innovation has been driven by the masses being able to create things on their computers. Something that potentially…

How does it restrict?

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#68

Post by GHFigs »

vacri wrote: post #59
kristopolous wrote: post #53

In 1951 you could have whined, "With the rise of pro-grammable computers, the Engineer can simply turn his brain off and let the computer do all the work. The era of craftsmanship has come to a close. No, no need to think dear friend, we have ourselves a Computer. Aughh!" Then, in 1961 you could have sighed, "The knowledge of how to maintain a computer will be gone forever with this increase in reliability. How will…

And if you did, you'd be missing the point. The explosion of computing in the general public over the past 20 years has seen the explosion of innovation - "the internet", as an industry, is really only 15 years old. Not even that. And yet it's innovated and transformed forever our modern societies. That innovation has been driven by the masses being able to create things on their computers. Something that potentially…

That innovation has been driven by the masses being able to create things on their computers.

Has it?

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#69

Post by postscapes1 »

This guy is missing out on the possibilities of the Third Wave of computing and the Makers Revolution.

Here are a couple of projects making this accessible to everyone.

http://readiymate.com/

http://teagueduino.org/

Arduino Tinker.it: http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=index&cPa...

Re: Why I’m scared of the post-PC era.

#70

Post by ugh »

orangecat wrote: post #40
netmute wrote: post #28

You may be 18, but you sound like an ignorant old man. "Back in my day, we wrote our own BASIC programs! That's how we got good!" There will be new and unexpected ways to create and tinker with technology. Don't give in to the "old man thinking", change is good.

change is good Improved technology is good. Companies attempting to dictate how you're allowed to use that technology is bad.

But they don’t. They clearly don’t. Apple has no monopoly.
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