The Hacker News discussion revolves around several key themes concerning technology, its impact on society, and the specific context of a potential acquisition of the Commodore brand.
The Double-Edged Sword of Technological Progress
A significant portion of the discussion grapples with the mixed impact of technology on humanity. While some users acknowledge the immense benefits and potential, others express deep concerns about its negative consequences and the direction it's headed.
One perspective highlights the disruptive nature of new technologies, particularly AI, on creative professions.
"Most profesional digital graphic artists and writers do hold some level of resentment to the latest technological advancements, and other professions will soon undoubtedly join that sentiment as AI tech evolves into more job fields." (mattigames)
However, this view is countered by those who see technology as a powerful enabler of new possibilities.
"as usual it's a matter of bubbles: most of those you know might hold such resentment, most of those I know are in fact in love with the possibilities and are trying their hardest to leverage the new tools." (ABS)
ABS further illustrates this point with an anecdote about their aunt:
"My 64yo "non digital" graphic artist aunt holds a very high level of resentment to the digital ones, while most of her old friends and ex-colleagues who embraced digital way back when are stil active in the space and happy one way or another, she is not."
The discussion also touches on how technology can be perceived as a reflection of societal issues rather than an external force causing them.
"I like to think of technology as an extension of people: what the technology is and how we use it is then a reflection of our minds in their current stage of continuous evolution. If we have problems regulating dopamine, then we'll gravitate to technologies that allow us to experience those problems: not the other way around." (dmos62)
Conversely, a more critical stance is taken, arguing that technology, especially modern computing, has not been a net positive for the average person.
"And yet, for all the glory and benefit that we were promised modern technology would bring, the average person only enjoys a small sliver of it, while the rest is enjoyed by the 1% of humans in control, or corrupted by those who seek becoming part of the 1%." (imiric) "I challenge anyone to steel man the argument that technology has been a net positive for humanity on a global scale, or that it will ever get better. I sure can't." (imiric)
This critique is met with a strong rebuttal, citing broad improvements in human well-being.
"Globally, since the advent of widespread computer use, human life has improved by orders of magnitude along every metric we have: poverty, hunger, disease, literacy, child mortality, life expectancy, homicide rates, etc., etc., etc." (throwpoaster)
However, the causal link between computer use and these improvements is questioned, with arguments that many positive trends predated widespread computing.
"Most of those trends were in motion well before widespread computer use... I'm sure that computers were a factor in improving the rate of literacy, education, perhaps even poverty, but they played a much smaller role in improving hunger, disease, child mortality, life expectancy, let alone homicide rates(!)." (imiric)
Computers as Enablers of Societal Ills
A parallel theme is the view that computers, particularly at scale, act as powerful enablers for various negative societal phenomena, from consumerism to political manipulation.
"Computers, and the scale they enable, are dystopian enablers of late-stage capitalism, fascism, and other exploitation." (Arainach)
Specific examples are cited:
"While in theory someone could look up a ton of information about you and precisely target ads to influence your behavior precisely, that wasn't a serious threat until computers. Neither were metrics and social dopamine triggers designed to keep you literally addicted to screens, voting campaign manipulation by hypertargeted disinformation campaigns, your job being replaced by a machine that illegally grabbed a bunch of art and can now spit out exact copies, or any of a thousand things computers are doing today." (Arainach)
This view is partially challenged by an argument that historical trends like fascism and slavery existed and were arguably more prevalent before modern computers.
"There has been more fascism before there were modern computers than after, so I'm not sure how they 'enable' fascism. Exploitation? Slavery was (relative to population; and likely more so if you adjust for the changing definition) more numerous before modern technology, and it remains primarily in underdeveloped countries." (luckylion)
Nostalgia and the Future of Legacy Brands
The discussion is also framed by the potential acquisition of the Commodore brand, bringing up themes of nostalgia, the perceived value of legacy, and whether clinging to the past is beneficial in the tech industry.
There's skepticism about the viability of the current acquisition effort.
"Buried the lede - they have not yet actually paid for it and are still raising money. As I said in the previous post about this, I support their efforts and applaud their enthusiasm. But they are making some very risky moves with their premature messaging. This could easily fall through and is just begging other parties with less sincere interest in the brand's legacy to take notice." (0xbadc0de5) "I'm quite frankly expecting a crash and burn with a lot of grasping-at-finances to try to keep whatever this becomes afloat, and/or another Atari-esque cash-grab-flailing-venture situation." (kotaKat)
A counterpoint suggests that nostalgia remains a valuable commodity, especially in a landscape of ephemeral and generic products.
"In a world where quality content or products disappear at an ever quicker pace, replaced with generic slop with no emotional attachment, functioning as just a way to extract something from you, the consumer, nostalgia becomes ever more valuable. Maybe not let everything go? Maybe letting things go is why we're at the current state of toxic consumerism that nobody likes." (askonomm)
However, the idea of holding onto past tech is also debated, with some arguing for moving on.
"Sometimes you have got to let things go. Clinging onto the past doesn't make sense in tech. Teaching kids today the wonders of that useless language called BASIC on 8 bit micros from the eighties amounts to cruel and unusual punishment." (Theodores)
This is then met with the argument that it might be too early to abandon certain brands, as their core nostalgic audience is still active.
"Yes, but it's too early for Commodore. Commodore is fondly remembered by Gen X, and Gen X is still alive and has the means to indulge its nostalgia." (topspin)
Finally, there are forward-looking suggestions for how legacy brands and their associated technologies could be repurposed for modern applications, such as with Silicon Graphics (SGI) and RISC-V.
"I can easily see a new generation of Silicon Graphics machines powered by something like a MI300R (R because the amd64 cores would be replaced by RISC-V ones, which are the natural heirs to MIPS)." (rbanffy) "Or we could repurpose the SGI acronym to be Silicon Graphics and Intelligence to catch the AI wave." (rbanffy)