 | Livable Streets and Reclaiming Public Space for People (Instead of Automobiles) | The Oil Drum: Campfire | Ecological Economics and the Food System |  |
161 comments on (Peak Oil) Ignorance is Strength ?
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
161 comments on (Peak Oil) Ignorance is Strength ?
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
User login
Contact
- campfire at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
The Oil Drum: Local archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
The Oil Drum: New York City archives
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
You are leaving out an important piece to this illustration. Companies figured out they could make more money...lots more money...if they sold personal PC's instead of mainframes. It is not necessarily the customer that lead this innovation, but the industry striving for a profit.
And herein lies the problem with paradigm shifts. Some shifts are by choice and humans have some control over them (like the evolution of the PC industry) while others are not by our choice and control.
In larger paradigm shifts like the transition to new societal energy systems, the end point of the shift may eventually bring enlightenment and improvement to the situation, but the transition will hurt like hell.
You are leaving out an important piece to this illustration. Companies figured out they could make more money...lots more money...if they sold personal PC's instead of mainframes. It is not necessarily the customer that lead this innovation, but the industry striving for a profit.
Sorry, but this is bull-shit. Companies never ever intended for a PC to replace mainframes or workstations. It just happened. First personal computers were created by hobbysts and small companies to be a toy (AppleI, Commandore, etc) and then when it become obvious that it's huge market and it's possible to do some business processing with these toys big companies followed.
A lot of companies perished in transition exactly because they believed money are in manframes or smaller, but still "big" iron.
You are all failing to understand the key point that the meaning of the word computer has drastically changed since that forecast. And whole new options opened up. At the time there was no idea they could have guis, or mice. No idea they could usefully replace typewriters let alone printing and books or even forums. They were just esoteric things, difficult to operate, for doing calculations and a few boring business tasks.
Don't forget the famous comment by Ken Olsen, President of Digital Equipment Corp. (now rolled into Compaq which was rolled into HP): "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home"