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paris
Joined October 2022
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not much has changed... which is kind of sad.
we still use a pointer as a crutch. we still copy and paste stuff. we still open a web browser just to access the internet.
what if the internet was simply there, built into today’s fast, reasoning machines, the moment you unbox the device?
Happy 35th Birthday WorldWideWeb – the first browser!
On December 25, 1990, at CERN, a British physicist and internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee created the world's first web browser, called WorldWideWeb.
Try the browser emulator worldwideweb.cern.ch/browser…
#InternetHistory
ALT On December 25, 1990, at CERN, a British physicist and internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee created the world's first web browser, called WorldWideWeb.
the craziest part now is that the modern computer probably has to be entirely reinvented, from scratch. pretty much like how jobs & co brought apple ii to market.
like not improved. not given a chatbot sidebar or something but really from the ground up like the iphone redefined what it meant to be a pocket computer.
the current paradigm for computers was built around a human staring at a screen, moving a cursor, opening apps, managing windows, naming files, remembering where things live, & manually translating intent into interface actions.
that made sense when the human was the runtime. but in an ai native world, it starts to look kinda ridiculous.
you can see this ridiculousness when you use computer use agents… they are useful sure, but they’re also obviously transitional. they’re teaching ai to operate machines designed for humans, which is clever, but also kind of absurd. it’s like making a robot hand so it can use a doorknob instead of asking why the door needs a knob at all. yes i know humans also need to use a door knob, but maybe in the future humans don’t need to use a computer, or at least what we think of a computer today at all.
this all leads to some interesting questions:
- what is a file when the system understands context?
- what is an app when intent can route itself?
- what is a desktop when work can be decomposed, executed, monitored, & summarized by agents?
- what is a browser when the agent can retrieve, compare, transact, & remember?
- what is an operating system when the primary user is no longer just a person, but a person plus a swarm of delegated intelligences? or no person at all.
the old computer assumed navigation.
the new computer has to assume a new kind of intention. the old computer organized information. the new computer has to try to organize agency.
we’re still in the hacky middle stage at the moment with sidebars, copilots, agents clicking through legacy ui, & automation layers sitting on top of 40 year old metaphors.
the new computer is likely one where memory, context, identity, permissions, tools, agents, & interfaces are native primitives. this means desktop, mobile, browser, apps, files, folders deserves another first principles look.
"technology is a glittering lure, but there's a rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash if they have a sentimental bond with the product.
my first job, i was in-house at a fur company, and this old pro copywriter named teddy—teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new." creates an itch. you simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.
we also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. it's delicate, but potent. teddy told me that in greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." it's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. this device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. it goes backwards and forwards. it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. it's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. it lets us travel the way a child travels – around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved."
— don draper, mad men (the carousel pitch)
