Post #3230813

2026-04-16 17:18 UTC

Like in the 90s and early 2000s it was just kind of a given that at some point, computers would stop being silicon and start being something else. The *only* survivor of that seems to be contemporary quantum computing, and it is... very much the "silicon-y" type of computing. Folk still share photos of solarpunk futures but don't understand: the research universities that were, 10, 20 years ago, funding these experimental computer designs? Stopped. And the tech employees who used to get enough extra salary to play around with these ideas in their garage? They don't have that wealth anymore. Even *if* the dominant society could invent things that save us from itself, it is no longer allocating resources toward anything that even vaguely resembles that effort. And I think the lack of investment hasn't really sunk in as meaning there's no real possibility of the thing occuring, becuase well, in order for things to occur, energy has to move.

Replies (1)

@emsenn@kolektiva.social 2026-04-16 17:28

And a shoutout to @technomancy@hey.hagelb.org cause you're still my personal hallmark of how possible it is to not be an asshole about this stuff, and not just how possible, but how *easy*: All it takes is to simply not take your own expertise, and tell me that what I think might be possible, is definitely impossible. Technomancy says when he doesn't know if what I am trying will work, and he'll tell me where other folk have tried to do similar, and where he thinks their struggle was. But the determination of what's possible or impossible? That's mine to make. And I think trying to provide that answer is where a lot of techies, and westerners in general, just kinda set off on a bad foot. They want to help by sharing their expertise that says the thing is impossible, so that the person doesn't waste the effort. I really respect that, especially as it comes from folk who are usually economized into caring greatly about not "wasting time" on research, discovery, imagination, inquisition. But it is almost never what anyone *actually* needs: they don't need to be told yes/no, true/false, possible/impossible. They need to be told, "I have information that supports that," "I have information that contradicts that," "I have complex information about that," or "I have no fucking clue." Anything else takes the actual thinking and deciding out of the hands of the person doing it, back into the past, of what has already been decided! And just, in a big meta way, how does anyone expect anything to change, if "change" is only ever determined by combining what's in the past, with the past, and not with what's currently like, going down in the present?

Open ##3230814