Alan Kay on stronger and weaker conceptions of computing--and life

[ontoligent]

His argument for why no one complains about the steps back is completely wrong, in my view. He attributes the tolerance of less sophisticated forms of technology to stupidity, when in fact it is the stupidity of the software engineer to continually underestimate the power of the social dimension to software and its importance to users.

[ontoligent]

This idea that the absence of WYSIWYG browser is not criticized because no one has the perspective to do so is silly. The reason people tolerate it, to the extent that they do, is that the browser brings a huge dimension tot he practice of word processing that was entirely absent before. People are willing to tolerate steps backward in one are of technology in a new application if the new application introduces other benefits.

[ParisPrague]

@ontoligent The absence of WYSIWYG would be silly if it wasn't nearly 20 years ago that the browser came out. Yes, there were new capabilities, so people tolerated the lack of finess at first. Now I think they've just forgotten that it can be better. Really, in twenty years, we can't do better than that?