Computers for Cynics 0 - The Myth of Technology
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN likes it for Nelson's habit of reframing computing history so that past decisions look arbitrary.
What it is
The opening episode of Ted Nelson's Computers for Cynics series, in which he casts doubt on conventional accounts of computer basics. He argues that conventions and packaging are mistaken for technology.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2013 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends sideb0ard · 2016-10 · on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”
I love the Ted Nelson "Computers For Cynics" series - [this video] He is kinda awesome in Herzog's recent 'Lo and Behold' too.
Recommends enkiv2 · 2018-04 · on “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”
Ted Nelson's Computers for Cynics probably doesn't contain technical information that's new to any of you, but Ted has a knack for reframing things in ways that make the arbitrariness of certain historical decisions clear: [this video] On the subject of hypertext, The Web That Wasn't gives a nice history of the idea (for anybody who thinks it starts with TBL -- surprisingly many people!): [LINK] Another reframing-oriented talk is Clay Shirky's "It's not information overload, it's filter failure", which ultimately leads to Shirky suggesting the kinds of user-oriented filtering features that Mastodon has implemented: [LINK] At the intersection of neurology and information science, Peter Watts alway
Recommends drewcoo · 2024-05 · on “The accidental tyranny of user interfaces”
The article has a link to a wonderful Ted Nelson series on YouTube that explores that kind of thing in more depth: Computers for Cynics. [this video]
Cites oscilloscope · 2013-08 · on “Ted Nelson”
Ted Nelson created a YouTube series, Computers for Cynics, which is his history of modern computing technology. [this video] In one amusing video, he proposes that Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin, is a pseudonym used by Shinichi Mochizuki, the mathematician who found a proof for the abc conjecture with his inter-universal geometry. [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]
Cites fmoralesc · 2016-04 · on “GNU/kWindows”
> The OS without kernel is called "GNU" But that's the thing, nobody other that the GNU people called that an OS worth of a name. I suspect what people call an OS is an standalone set of conventions and packaging that can actually be used to interface between the hardware and the user [0]; so I think Debian is more worth of being called an OS on its own than "GNU userspace - kernel". Same with any other Linux distribution, *BSD variant, Windows and OSX. It was the linux project that made those OSes viable as standalone things (to be fair, the GNU userspace made them viable as usable working platforms for early adopters - but nowadays the role of GNU software in the OS is less central), and p
Cites 0x69420 · 2022-05 · on “SonoBus: High-quality, low-latency peer-to-peer audio”
"Part of the myth is thinking that packaging is technology. [...] Microsoft Windows is packaging and conventions. The Macintosh is packaging and conventions. The World Wide Web is packaging and conventions. Underneath these wrappers are the real technologies: TCP/IP, DNS, graphical displays, [...] compression, payment mechanisms, encryption, and so on, but the wrapper is what people see." -Ted Nelson [1] that being said, this is one bit of “packaging” im particularly grateful for -- by complete coincidence, i found it a few days ago, and the fact that the app is free* and available everywhere means i can finally use my phone as an audio receiver for any computer†. now i can listen to talks w