Nostalgia is a curse in life and tech.

Nostalgia is when you want things to stay the same. I know so many people staying in the same place.

Jeanne Moreau

Technology is becoming increasingly complex and is rapidly changing our lives. Even experts in the field struggle to fully comprehend the extent of these changes. When faced with this unfamiliar and unsettling situation, we often long for the comfort and simplicity of the past. This is evident in the behavior of a publication that focuses on technology and its future impact, as it devotes attention to the remake of an old beloved machine while simultaneously ridiculing someone attempting to innovate in the field of computing.

About five years ago, I remember reading an article about the artisanal internet and wondering why we don’t internalize that change is the only constant. The article’s thrust was that behavioral advertising and rise of big tech had destroyed the small-town bonhomie and idealism of the early Internet.

That was true, and still is. Also true is that “Web3” was dismissed due to the presence of grifters, but it is working on ways to move forward. This is a world where advertising, one company, or one platform doesn’t dominate. This was and is the meta point of Web3, just as the meta-point of the Internet is connectedness.

Connectedness — which is state of always being connected to the Internet and thus to people, things, life, work, commerce, love, hate and anger – is the single thought that dominates my mind, and it defines how I view everything, how I evaluate everything. It is my telescope and it is my microscope. I don’t see the world in silos called mobile, broadband, browser, app or television. Instead, it is all about being in the state of connectedness.

My Essay, Data Darwinism & Future of Work, from March 2013

We have to wonder if we mix up the future with people and companies, and as a result, miss the bigger picture. I fell in love with the Internet over three decades ago, falling in love with the idea of one network to connect them all. It started with computers, then it was people, and then things.

Many of us were drawn to the web-browser-based version of the Internet, which included Amazon, Blogs, Digg, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. As we embraced these services, we began to assume that the Internet was only accessible through a browser. When apps became popular, many people complained about how they containerized the web. Today, there are complaints about platform monopolies, and now this thing called artificial intelligence.

AGI killing the human race is a long way off. For now, just look at the headlines; we are doing a damn fine job of ruining the planet and its residents. Meanwhile, augmented intelligence is slowly emerging, doing what technology has always done — automating parts of our lives.

It has always been that way. From the day someone figured out a wheel, a steam engine, the automobile, the chip, or the Internet. The wheel created a work flow of faster movement or better tilling of the land. The steam engine generated power to do things faster, whether pumping water, moving trains, or driving looms. The internet, like all technologies of the past, has been about workflows (also known as applications if you are thinking purely from a software perspective).

Killer and timeless applications like email, the browser, and video have emerged over time. We are now in the post-browser network state, and many people seem confused by the emergence of non-browser internet, where humans will need to co-exist and work with machines talking to machines.

In my piece, Real Personal (AI) Computer, I wrote:

Smartphones changed personal computing by making it “everywhere.” Personal computing, as we know it, is once again evolving, this time being reshaped by AI, which is making us rethink how we interact with information. There are many convergent trends — faster networks, more capable chips, and the proliferation of sensors, including cameras. 

Smaller, lower energy, more powerful, and more capable chips mean we can now build smaller, more capable devices. The faster networks of today can deliver the power of the cloud instantly. More importantly, what is different is the emergence and progress made by what is colloquially called AI.  Large Language Models (LLMs) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) progress means we no longer need old methods to acquire and interact with information.

If you have been a regular reader, then you are familiar with my argument that artificial intelligence is really augmented intelligence for us mortals, allowing us to cope with the complexity of an ever-digital world. AI is here to make personal computing even more personal.

This is clearly going to redefine everything, including the meaning of work and the meaning of us. I am not sure I have answers about the future that no one can yet predict. What I do know is nostalgia is not what defines the future. I am sure none of 10-year-olds will give a damn about the nostalgia-Internet or the keyboards and mice or cute computers of the past. Nostalgia is a symptom of generational drift. As Miuccia Prada said:

Nostalgia is a very complicated subject for me. I’m attracted by nostalgia but I refuse it intellectually.

I do too.

November 30, 2023, in San Francisco.

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• In a bit of irony, I first wrote these thoughts with an almost 100-year-old Sheaffer fountain pen on paper made by a Japanese company using machines that are nearly 75 years old.
• Cover art was created with Midjourney image creator.