I'll begin with a couple of opinions, and then go on to my main point, which is an opinion. First, I don't see why anyone would want to use any kind of computer other than a phone. I'm not talking about, routers, servers and mainframes, in other words, the cloud, but as an io device, I think laptops and desktops are for the birds. I know I'm being a little silly, but a smartphone is such an elegant package, in my opinion it makes all the other configurations look silly. But this is more than just an aesthetic rant. What really gets me is software that works only marginally well on a phone. "You need a laptop to run this" seems to me like the most obtuse thing anyone could possibly say to a customer.
Next, I think apps are for the birds. Sure, most of them are really cute and some of them are downright terrific, but the whole app ecosystem is a recipe for trouble, if you ask me. I think I should be able to do literally whatever I want - within reason, sure; sure it needs to be possible, and so forth - in the browser, by going to pages. Kudos to Steemit, by the way, because it's working fantastic in the browser on my phone.
So, I'm browsing YouTube and I come across tubes from this company developing AI for customer relations, which is a pretty important idea, to my mind. Now, I think the AI moniker is pretty dumb. Sure, the association my mind makes between the artificial and fake is a matter of connotation, but isn't the real problem just intelligence? By the way, what is that? Well, this company is saying it means that the computer can engage with a person in conversation. So I thought "that might work". Maybe, I thought, I can go to their web site and have a conversation with their computer.
I went to their web site. Maybe there would be a box, there, and I could type in "Hi", and their machine would say something back.
No such luck. There was a picture of a pretty girl, and some stuff I'm supposed to read, blah blah blah, and then I'm invited to fill out a form. They'll get back to me.
My dream of interacting with an intelligent computer apparently is still just a dream.
OK, that's my rant. I kind of just wanted to close that tab, anyway. I mean, yeah, I want more out of computing than I'm getting. It's weird. I'm so into it, but I feel like I'm just barely getting access to its potential. That's obviously because my skills are really limited, but I wonder ... if you need exceptional skills to get the full benefit, doesn't that mean there's something like income inequality within the realm? And isn't income inequality a form of potential energy? It seems to me something's gonna give. There are going to be developments that are beyond what I think basically anyone expects. I do feel like I can see what some of those changes need to look like. It's interesting. I do think computers are going to become more programmable. People will rely a lot less on programmers than they do today. It'll be like the programmer's job is done, and it'll be done when everybody just programs on their own. Also, and programming is an example of this, things which today are viewed as being special purpose and professional functions will, in this future, be infotech commodities.
I do want to link to this other YouTube that I think describes the potential of all of this the best of anything I've seen. Maybe we can discuss it. I haven't tried embedding a YuTube video before, so let's see if this works.
Hmm. Doesn't look like it worked. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/AgkM5g_Ob-w.
Of course Elon Musk headlines the show.
Anyway, I'm quite amazed how useful Steemit is, for me personally. Mind you, it's also a blast. Well, I've been trying to use it as an alternative to bookmarks and the like, and, actually, that hasn't been working out as well as I'd hoped. You know what, I've gone on at a little too much length, and I was going to pass on this thought, but I've decided to go with it. I checked out a Terry Brock post today about a recent big business debacle, and I think it's pretty relevant. Like I say, I see problems in this industry, problems that are pretty fundamental, but I'm a complete incompetent, so so the developers I talk to just roll their eyes. What I'm saying is, just the fact that you've done something completely effing amazing, and you're headed towards millions of users at pretty much Warp speed doesn't mean you are necessarily covering all the fundamental bases. What I see is a lot of pretty fundamental things being basically ignored, and it's possible that will catch up with the industry, at some point. I absolutely adore Steemit, and I'm amazed what a mainstay it has become for me right off the bat, but I do feel Steemit is an example of what I'm describing. Sure, Steemit is innovating in key areas, and maybe the shouldn't let themselves get distracted, for sure, so, you know, I'm not doing anything but putting my perspective out there just a little. So, on the way to the theater, I wanted to close some tabs, like I said, but I kind of changed my mind about it, but a funny thing happened: something sort of clicked, and I figured out how I wanted to organize certain things in my bookmarks, and I closed a bunch of tabs - and I think I managed to keep them where I'll see them again. That feels so great! Sometimes (thank you yet again, Steemit), taking some kind of action, almost any kind of action, can get things moving, even if it's almost an accidental result.