So, the nature of computing science should be to have fun. I like that idea, in theory... the problem is, "fun" rarely pushes one to do the really hard work needed for significant improvement, that isn't fun.
The hard sciences seem to lead to more real-world applications quicker. Software science only seems to advance when used by tech companies to sell ads. But there's not that many applications for software to perform that function, so there's not really that many material improvements.
They keep coming up with new ways to advertise (who'd have imagined an interactive navigation map that advertises burgers?). But the computer technology that controls the lives of the common man has not progressed much past the 90s. The hardware has gotten denser, sure, but the software has bloated at the same pace, without providing a significantly improved or different user experience. It's still just clicking windows and paging through media, with basically the same software working the same way, just re-written 20 times over.
These new forms of generative AI certainly have the capability to sort out information more efficiently, and skip a lot of the more manual programming required to provide features. But AI was never necessary to take a prompt and turn it into an action, as all the car nav systems in the world have shown for years. Yet for some reason I can't quite fathom, only cars have audible user interfaces? And we traded tactile interfaces for glass screens... because it's prettier?
I don't care about simplicity or complexity, any more than I care about how antibiotics are produced. I care that I can take a pill and get better.
Similarly, it would be great if it were just a little bit easier to do simple things, like check my bank statement, without worrying about "cyber threats", or jumping through hoops when the next password replacement fails, or having to upgrade my app for the 3rd time this week before I'm allowed to check the bank statement, or having to click through offers for yet another credit card, or navigate a complex tree of "features" that varies from app to app, and month to month. I just want to read my god damn statement.
I don't know if the philosophy of producing this technology will ever be resolved. But I've stopped caring. The state of computer science today is, I've given up hoping for something advanced. I'll settle for something that isn't painful.
The hard sciences seem to lead to more real-world applications quicker. Software science only seems to advance when used by tech companies to sell ads. But there's not that many applications for software to perform that function, so there's not really that many material improvements.
They keep coming up with new ways to advertise (who'd have imagined an interactive navigation map that advertises burgers?). But the computer technology that controls the lives of the common man has not progressed much past the 90s. The hardware has gotten denser, sure, but the software has bloated at the same pace, without providing a significantly improved or different user experience. It's still just clicking windows and paging through media, with basically the same software working the same way, just re-written 20 times over.
These new forms of generative AI certainly have the capability to sort out information more efficiently, and skip a lot of the more manual programming required to provide features. But AI was never necessary to take a prompt and turn it into an action, as all the car nav systems in the world have shown for years. Yet for some reason I can't quite fathom, only cars have audible user interfaces? And we traded tactile interfaces for glass screens... because it's prettier?
I don't care about simplicity or complexity, any more than I care about how antibiotics are produced. I care that I can take a pill and get better.
Similarly, it would be great if it were just a little bit easier to do simple things, like check my bank statement, without worrying about "cyber threats", or jumping through hoops when the next password replacement fails, or having to upgrade my app for the 3rd time this week before I'm allowed to check the bank statement, or having to click through offers for yet another credit card, or navigate a complex tree of "features" that varies from app to app, and month to month. I just want to read my god damn statement.
I don't know if the philosophy of producing this technology will ever be resolved. But I've stopped caring. The state of computer science today is, I've given up hoping for something advanced. I'll settle for something that isn't painful.