Ask HN: Was there any criticism on early internet or personal computer?

5 points by going_ham 3 years ago | 5 comments

Hello HN, (especially the old crowd)

What were the sentiments of the people who researched computer technology in the early days of personal computing? Also, what were the sentiments of people involved during the early days of the internet?

If there are any public opinions on the sentiment of people who researched in these fields, can we get some?

Thank you

Please link to the authentic sources and general sentiments of the people who were involved in technological progress. I am asking this question because I don't feel that people who were part of the technology opposed the proliferation of it. Instead, every major revolution was supported until recently (esp. around 2015-2016).

jonjacky 3 years ago |

The Whole Earth Review[1] No. 44 Dec 1984/Jan 1985 was a theme issue "Computers as Poison"[2], filled with articles critical of the still rather new personal computers.

This was notable because the Review was a continuation of the Whole Earth Catalog and its successors, which were usually enthusiastic about personal computers.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Review

2. https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/nensmeng/enviro-compute/post...

wmf 3 years ago |

Silicon Snake Oil (1995) is an early book that criticized Internet hype. Note that the author Cliff Stoll was an expert sysadmin who had much more experience using the Internet than many of the people promoting it at the time.

Computer science legend Donald Knuth used email from 1975 to 1990, then stopped using it. "It seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime." https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html

What these examples have in common is people who used technology long enough for the novelty to wear off.

cc101 3 years ago |

I was there in 1969 and on. Professional computer scientists (electrical engineers at that time) ridiculed personal computers and those who used them. They weren't taken seriously enough to be considered a threat. This was especially true of UNIX users. I don't think that these folks were even aware of the growth of personal computer use until it had "taken over the world." If there is an implication for the ChatGPT issue today, it might be that the truly revolutionary changes will largely remain out of sight until they are a fait accompli.

wmf 3 years ago | |

To be fair to the Unix people, almost everyone got disruptive technologies like PCs wrong, especially back then. PCs actually were garbage for the tasks that people used minis and mainframes for... but they enabled different tasks.

h2odragon 3 years ago |

Bill Gates vs "networks" leaps to mind.