Found this linked off of Pajamas Media, James Fallows writing for The Atlantic Magazine way back in the silicon dark ages of 1982, Living with a Computer.
Hindsight is a glorious thing, and so is foresight. Both are overrated. We often think our hindsight is perfect, but it only really comes after the fact. Before the fact most of us were as clueless as the rest. Foresight is an increasingly common thing, but it is more informed by caprice than a head full of facts. Luck, arrogance and selective ignorance are the constant companions of both.
It is refreshing to look back at the words of some bright guy like Fallows as he takes baby steps into the future. Change doesn't tend to consult with those it affects and despite our best efforts, we mostly just muddle through. Green phosphor screen, miles of cable, a printer built like a battle ship. It was a rotten job and somebody did have to do it so you can read this on a wireless laptop no where near your cubicle farm.
It should also be humbling to think about our current complaints about technology in the face of the facts of where we were some twenty-five years ago. They really had nothing except pens, pencils and paper. When was the last time that you actually stopped to be grateful for how far we've advanced in those few years?
I remember in the early 1980s a friend who was a computer consultant. He had a computer in his home. He and his wife had three children in their home. His children would type out their school reports on this monstrous computer and take the print outs to school. Of course they were accused (well, the Dad really) of cheating. After hours of school visits, it was finally concluded that the children had indeed done their own homework, but to make everyone happy [i.e., the school employees], the children would have to hand copy any work done on the computer and hand that in.
I can appreciate the school's caution - uh, no I can't. I can understand they didn't understand what was happening to their safe world. What I can appreciate is that pioneers often take arrows and are willing to take risks because they had foresight. Sometimes it does work.
