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25 points surprisetalk | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source
1. lsy ◴[] No.45674792[source]
I think this leaves out what is probably the most likely future for this technology, having a similar destiny to most technologies as a tool. Both of these visions assume (I think incorrectly) a trend towards ubiquity, where either every interaction you as a person have is mediated by computers, or where within a certain "room" every interaction anyone has is mediated by computers.

But it seems more likely that like other technologies developed by humanity, we will see that computers are not efficient for, or extensible to, every task, and people will naturally tend to reach for computers where they are helpful and be disinclined to do so when they aren't helpful. Some computers will be in rooms, some will get carried around or worn, some will be integrated into infrastructure.

Similar to the automobile, steam powered motors, and electricity, we may predict a future where the technology totally pervades our lives, but in reality we eventually develop a sort of infrastructure that delimits the tool's use to a certain extent, whether it is narrow or wide. If that's the case then the work for the field is less about shoving the tech into every interaction, and more about developing better abstractions to allow people to use compute in an empowering rather than a disempowering way.