[seanmcdirmid]

At Engelbart's mother of all demos in 1968, which basically birthed what we call personal computing today, most computer scientists were convinced that AGI was right around the corner and "personal computing" wasn't worth it.

Now, back then AGI wasn't right around, and personal computing was really really necessary, but how did we forget the viewpoint that personal computing was seen as a competing way to use computing power vs AI?

[tempodox]

Economic interests, walled gardens, lock-in effects. Providers learned to make it (initially) convenient for us to forget. Of course, once we’re hooked, enshittification ensues: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44837367