Comments on: No more geeks in fifty years?

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:35:00 +0000

In 50 years, you might not even need to wear anything to communicate by thought.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:35:00 +0000

In 50 years, you might not even need to wear anything to communicate by thought.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I don't see that happening. Back in the early sixties, futurists were predicting that the advances in technology would give us all more leisure time. What we do? We invented more things to use up our time. If anything, I think the trend is towards more 24/7 connectedness — always pushed, no quiet spaces in our experience.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I don’t see that happening. Back in the early sixties, futurists were predicting that the advances in technology would give us all more leisure time. What we do? We invented more things to use up our time. If anything, I think the trend is towards more 24/7 connectedness — always pushed, no quiet spaces in our experience.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Yes, and I don't think the advance of technology helps people to think more precisely. Quite the opposite, in fact — they get sloppier.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Yes, and I don’t think the advance of technology helps people to think more precisely. Quite the opposite, in fact — they get sloppier.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Yes, but how easily could you write the next Ruby on Rails? Granted, it would be easier now than it was when DHH did it — but that's only because some geek invented the new tools. There will always be a need for new tools that are beyond the ken of most people.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Yes, but how easily could you write the next Ruby on Rails? Granted, it would be easier now than it was when DHH did it — but that’s only because some geek invented the new tools. There will always be a need for new tools that are beyond the ken of most people.

By: Angus

Angus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Assuming humans remain in approximately their current biological form, there will always be geeks (or, more precisely, there will always be non-geeks) because being a geek seems to require a certain type of thought process which not all humans seem to be capable of.

By: Angus

Angus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:14:00 +0000

By: craig burnett

craig burnett — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:18:00 +0000

I dunno. Yes, there will always be people who know more than average about tech but I think the divide will probably narrow to near negligible in future. Look at the rise of frameworks. Want to write a wiki? Just fire up Ruby on Rails, make a few design decisions, run a script and it's done and listening on a port for its first connection. You never even see a while loop or a subroutine. Now how long would that take you in C? Weeks at least.

It still takes some technical know-how and it isn't something my mom could do. But how long until users can do it themselves with the help of very powerful WYSIWYG programming tools? There will always be a need for geeks but the gap between user and developer is closing.

By: craig burnett

craig burnett — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:18:00 +0000

I dunno. Yes, there will always be people who know more than average about tech but I think the divide will probably narrow to near negligible in future. Look at the rise of frameworks. Want to write a wiki? Just fire up Ruby on Rails, make a few design decisions, run a script and it’s done and listening on a port for its first connection. You never even see a while loop or a subroutine. Now how long would that take you in C? Weeks at least.

It still takes some technical know-how and it isn’t something my mom could do. But how long until users can do it themselves with the help of very powerful WYSIWYG programming tools? There will always be a need for geeks but the gap between user and developer is closing.