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by coobird 790 days ago
> What is this obsession with the past and the early days of computing? The reason why people don't cherish these types of things is they are rational. Technology is about tomorrow. It's not about yesterday

This reply hanging off a thread about prior art is telling.

As surprising as it may be, the past can tell a lot about the future, as the past was present at a point, and the future is now.

Take an example about AI. This past couple of years isn't the first time that AI had been a hot topic. Look back to the late 80's -- there was a lot of research into it and lots of predictions about how the world would change -- but that didn't happen. It definitely didn't affect the general public as has today. So why is that? Looking at the different circumstances between the past and today (i.e., increase in computing power, availability of networks and broadband, general availability of computing devices, etc. etc.) could then be used to predict the future.

Looking back at the past can give hints about what the future may hold.
3 comments
Sakos 790 days ago
> what is this obsession with the past

waves in the general direction of all the millions of books about history and all the history classes we've had in school and all the people studying history and all the history channels on YouTube or TikTok or all the history subreddits

What does that even mean? Our history is important to us. Full stop.

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AlbertCory 790 days ago
> a thread about prior art

since I wrote that: it's actually pretty rare that a defendant can actually use a piece of prior art in a case, but there's always a hope that ONE time, you will.

The other difficulty is that lawyers and jurors will make fun of anything that's too old. I know, it isn't fair, but you do have to overcome a built-in bias against ancient stuff.

I realize you're not talking about litigation, but that was what I meant.

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WalterBright 790 days ago
An old email I had once saved me from an expensive lawsuit.
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pushedx 790 days ago
Right, Neural Networks were considered simply an academic curiousity for about 65 years.

Disregarding the past is simply ignorance.

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