connect the dots.
I loved reading computer magazines from the 1980s, you should too
Compiled from Wired Magazine article: I Love Reading 1980s Computer Magazines, and So Should You (2021/1/26)
Subtitle: It's not just about nostalgia. Looking back often brings something new.
Imagine walking into a greeting card shop and getting a poem written just for you by a computer. This is not a crazy idea considering the recent development of AI-driven language models such as GPT-3 . But the product I'm describing is nothing new. It's called Magical Poet , and it was installed on Macintosh computers back in 1985.
I discovered this product in the November issue of MacUser magazine , right next to Apple's announcement that it was developing digital voice generation. Browsing the Internet Archive for computer magazines from the 1980s and 1990s is a hobby of mine, and it rarely disappoints. Given my Apple-centric childhood, my tastes lean towards MacUser magazine and Macworld magazine, though I also read some BYTE magazines . I like the length of the old ads, with whole paragraphs of text detailing the product. I love the nostalgia these magazines evoke, the wonder and possibility that computers brought to our lives when they first entered our lives.
But it's not just happiness. I've found that mining old technology often brings us new things.
Especially when you're in the early days of mining PCs, as I like to do. These old magazines, in particular, describe an explosion of diversity in hardware and software design. You might come across a stand-alone software dictionary (with a recommendation from William f. Buckley jr.!), or a word search generator , or a magazine on a floppy disk . Don't forget the MacTable , a Danish-made beech table for Macintosh computers and their various peripherals.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, we tried a ton of new concepts, many of which seem odd to us today. As these technical possibilities are sifted through, we move into the development ( exploit ) phase to develop what works best. That's what PCs are (and PC desks, too); but so are innovations in other areas - just look at early flying gear or bicycle designs.
Some technologies disappear for good reason. Penny-farthing (a bicycle with a big front wheel and a small rear wheel) seems a bit ridiculous in retrospect—and quite dangerous. In a Darwinian struggle, it should die . But sometimes an innovation dies for some other, less important reason - it's more what the market does at the time, or something else. I don't think anyone misses the experimental steam-powered cars at the beginning of the automotive age. But inventors and mechanics at the time were also working on electric cars — which, as Vannevar Bush once pointed out, simply failed because the batteries weren't good enough. In other words, bad timing for a good idea.
Many other good ideas are buried in the past, waiting to be rediscovered. History is an archaeological narration, with layers of revelation and sources of inspiration. For example, HyperCard is a software tool developed for the Mac in 1987 that allows non-programmers to build their own programs without programming. The neural network software package of 1988 shares similarities with the machine learning techniques that power today's technology. And the " electronic napkin " that helped you brainstorm in 1994 has been reborn in today's so-called "tools for thought." While true demise may be fairly rare in tech — Kevin Kelly doesn’t think any technology ever really dies — many early software and hardware concepts did disappear from the popular imagination and widespread use . Hang out on the archives, there's a lot to learn.
But unfortunately, technologists tend to ignore all this. A few years ago, The New Yorker quoted recently pardoned self-driving car pioneer Anthony Levandowski as saying he had no faith in anything that happened in the past:
I don't even know why we should study history. I guess it's funny - dinosaurs, Neanderthals and the Industrial Revolution, etc. But what has happened doesn't matter. You don't need to know history to build on what they created. In technology, the most important thing is tomorrow.
Lewandowski's views are by no means universal, but neither are they uncommon. As Ian Bogost told The Baffler , "Computing is one of the most ahistorical disciplines in the sciences."
Computer scientist Bret Victor cleverly explained the problem in ahistorical terms in a talk he pretended to be speaking in 1973. He proves through example after example that there were some crazy and wonderful innovations decades ago—from direct manipulation of data to parallel computing paradigms—that modern technologists ignore. Victor recognizes that history is full of missed opportunities.
To get out of this dilemma, we need a new and innovative approach, one based on the spirit of Renaissance humanism. While we tend to think of humanism as a commitment to reason and individualism, as Tim Carmody describes it , "really like old books and manuscripts, the quirkier the better" and work to dispel them . More specifically, I think we should channel this urge to help us revisit old technical knowledge and uncover forgotten discoveries. This is not an unthinking worship, but a principled pursuit of insight into the past. Software developers should look to old computer magazines for inspiration. Engineers should visit museums. Scientists should mine all the "undiscovered public knowledge" hidden in academic literature.
To some extent, this kind of work is already underway. The Media Archaeology Lab at The University of Colorado Boulder collects old hardware and software and allows visitors to interact with them — there I browse old computing books, play a A working NeXTcube. As the lab notes on its website, the lab "demonstrates alternative paths in the history of technology and enables visitors to imagine an alternative present and future." (demonstrates alternative paths in the history of technology and empowers visitors to imagine an alternative present and future.) Computer scientist Bill Buxton collected many input and interactive devices and made them navigable online . The Computer History Museum has an extensive computer collection and recently made Smalltalk, the seminal programming language for more than 20 years, publicly available online .
These projects help us gain a deeper understanding of the path-dependent evolution of technology. They allow us to revisit the old in order to build the new.
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