Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Something very on-the-nose about investing 500b to build AI infrastructure and calling it “Stargate” A bit like Reagan “Star Wars” or Japan’s “5th gen computing” Great tech enters history obliquely. Cul de sacs start in on-the-nose ways, even if they achieve great heights. Eg internet as arpanet was oblique, space program that stagnated with Apollo was on-the-nose. Crypto was oblique, “private blockchains,” CBDCs and e-ID schemes are on-the-nose. The Alexnet genesis event and transformers were oblique, “alignment” tech is on the nose. Landing reusable boosters was oblique. SLS is on-the-nose. On-the-nose history-making goals are for politicians. Tech is most interesting when oblique. In the last decade SV tech in particular has lost its obliquity. Ironically, it now seems to start with ever-more ideological manifestos the way weak “alt” tech visions used to. Big money is always insecure so goes on-the-nose. The small money p,aging on the margins otoh is worth keeping an eye on.
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John Grant
@jlg
I like the on-the-nose vs oblique perspective. However, numerous exceptions exist. For example, the complexity of CERN's research led to the development of the WWW and Boisot's I-Space. And I-Space led to the development of Cynefin and Wardley maps.
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John Grant
@jlg
I wonder if this type of development has actually been more prevalent in Europe. This question would make for an interesting side project
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