Retro computer community just has allot of old people from the 1970’s , 80’s and 90’s that want to revisit old computers from that era when they grew up because they either did not have a computer back then or were to busy working or doing other things to really get to understand what computers were all about back then.

It’s NOT just about gaming. Back then there was a fierce rivalry between computer manufactures, components, and software.

gerry wrote on 2023-05-16, 09:50:

konc wrote on 2023-05-16, 07:26:

2050, so ~25 years from now. Judging by the expectations of people in 1985 for 2000 vs reality, there's always a chance that vogons stills exists and someone necroposts in this thread using their beige computer, because beige has become the new black. Heck, I'll add a google calendar notification for 2050 in case myself and google are still alive for an epic necropost!

25 years would have meant 1975 expectations of the year 2000

I'm still waiting for my flying car. I was promised flying cars.

sliderider wrote on 2023-05-21, 08:01:

gerry wrote on 2023-05-16, 09:50:

25 years would have meant 1975 expectations of the year 2000

I'm still waiting for my flying car. I was promised flying cars.

yes indeed! So much of the imagines future as depicted in the 1950's to 1980's was very 'physical' and often quite large - spaceships, flying cars, moonbases. It was envisioned often as a clean plastic high energy consuming wonderland in which humans stay the same following similar lifestyles but the places we live and the objects we use all changed dramatically in obvious physical ways

yet it seems the opposite, its all getting smaller and more digital, it is we and the way we live that that is poised to be changed

Even if AI will do everything I want, I'll still prefer real people and real old hardware.

sliderider wrote on 2023-05-21, 08:01:

gerry wrote on 2023-05-16, 09:50:

konc wrote on 2023-05-16, 07:26:

2050, so ~25 years from now. Judging by the expectations of people in 1985 for 2000 vs reality, there's always a chance that vogons stills exists and someone necroposts in this thread using their beige computer, because beige has become the new black. Heck, I'll add a google calendar notification for 2050 in case myself and google are still alive for an epic necropost!

25 years would have meant 1975 expectations of the year 2000

I'm still waiting for my flying car. I was promised flying cars.

What are you waiting for? Those already exist.
https://youtu.be/1DRhHMy-D4E

I'm sure flying cars have been around for ages but tyre manufactures and the government (as I don't know where my road taxes go but it aint on road maintaince) conspire against us. 😉
Although was thinking the other day with a Hyundai in my rear view mirror. ok I don't really like it's look I could imagine that in something like Demolition Man, so in a way cars of 90's future are here

sliderider wrote on 2023-05-21, 08:01:

gerry wrote on 2023-05-16, 09:50:

konc wrote on 2023-05-16, 07:26:

2050, so ~25 years from now. Judging by the expectations of people in 1985 for 2000 vs reality, there's always a chance that vogons stills exists and someone necroposts in this thread using their beige computer, because beige has become the new black. Heck, I'll add a google calendar notification for 2050 in case myself and google are still alive for an epic necropost!

25 years would have meant 1975 expectations of the year 2000

I'm still waiting for my flying car. I was promised flying cars.

The ironic thing is that certain things were possible in 1975 that weren't in 2000.
Cars with foldable wings, hower crafts, jet packs etc.

They were much more likely to be seen in real life in the late 20th century.
For example, in France, you could land your own helicopter in your backyard in 1975. Or so I heard.

Nowadays, all the fun or experimental stuff seems to be being forbidden. The world needs more bold individuals again with a wacky, flamboyant personality.
The Gyro Gearloose sort of people with a non-standard, non-conforming kind of mindset. :)

To give an example, back in the 1960s/1970s, if you were a child, you could tighten a wire from one house's window to another, to build a house telephone for you and your friend.

Sure, the neighbors would be surprised at first and asking about it because of curiosity.
But they wouldn't call the police instantly, as it's the case nowadays.
Instead, they would be impressed about the children's creativity.

It's these things why there's so little progress these days.
Don't get me wrong, there always had been annoying people or neighbors who were watching you and reporting you.
However, the general attitude torwards experimenters, progress and research was more positive, I think. People were rather amused than being upset.

And children had more freedom, too. You could play outside, climb trees, lay on a meadow..
Sure, this is still possible in theory, but..

Doing these things nowadays will near instantly trigger attention of some lawmen, environmentalist and neighbors.

You can't even let a harmless paper boat float down a river anymore. Even if it's made from recycling paper.

Letting a kite fly is out of question, too, because it could confuse pilots and then cause planes to crash or
it could be getting caught in high-voltage power lines. *sigh*
If at all, you have to visit special areas to let your kite fly safely. A desert, a dead farmland, an abandoned industrial park? ;)

gerry wrote on 2023-05-09, 14:12:

let's imagine someone in 2050 remembering their far away youth in the late 1990's […]
Show full quote

let's imagine someone in 2050 remembering their far away youth in the late 1990's

They want to relive the past, revisit and re-experience it a little

to the AI interface that is permanently present they say "I want to experience the late 1990's again, the movies and songs but especially the computer i had and the games i played, only i don't remember the exact details too well."

the AI spends a few seconds weighing up their personal data and also processes 1000's of TBs of online data, watches 1000's of movies, listens to 10,000's songs and plays almost every game from 1995 to 1999 while correlating and weighing up millions of other data items of the time

it produces the following:

- a beige computer case and crt from a 3d printer, it all works (actually it does nothing, a tiny share of nearby computing power generates all the actual outputs, but it appears to be PC, it even has components)
- 100's of complete games that look, play and feel a bit like 1990's titles - but have never existed before and will never exist after
- endless movies and songs all apparently real 1990's songs and movies but all generated on the fly, none have been seen or heard before and none will be ever seen or heard again - there is no shared culture at all*

.
*although if prompted the AI will generate a convincing online community who have 'seen', 'heard' and 'played' the games and will happily discuss it with our protagonist, whether by chat, forum, voice or video call

This occurred to me a few months ago, and i also wondered, "Hey, have you seen Terminator 2?" But the answer might be, "yeah, but with Stallone and the T1000 wins"...

I saw on reddit that GPT can do a really good simulation of a BBS, so the evolution of that with video etc sure points in that direction that we could completely wrap ourselves up in a generative experience.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-22, 11:10:

Letting a kite fly is out of question, too, because it could confuse pilots and then cause planes to crash or
it could be getting caught in high-voltage power lines. *sigh*
If at all, you have to visit special areas to let your kite fly safely. A desert, a dead farmland, an abandoned industrial park? 😉

or an AI generated virtual reality... 🙁

i follow your point, there seemed to be a great optimism in the past and a greater sense of technological experimentation and exploration in organisations and broadly in society, at least in as far as 'big' analogue ideas were concerned

Kenpachi wrote on 2023-05-22, 14:15:

This occurred to me a few months ago, and i also wondered, "Hey, have you seen Terminator 2?" But the answer might be, "yeah, but with Stallone and the T1000 wins"...

I saw on reddit that GPT can do a really good simulation of a BBS, so the evolution of that with video etc sure points in that direction that we could completely wrap ourselves up in a generative experience.

yes, the ever more atomic and isolated self, surrounded by an illusion of culture and an illusion of history and reality, each having their own generated version with no cultural 'anchors' around which we can build connections

maybe that's too dystopian and misses various factors that will mitigate it, but it does seem to be part of the general direction now

Kenpachi wrote on 2023-05-22, 14:15:

gerry wrote on 2023-05-09, 14:12:

let's imagine someone in 2050 remembering their far away youth in the late 1990's […]
Show full quote

let's imagine someone in 2050 remembering their far away youth in the late 1990's

They want to relive the past, revisit and re-experience it a little

to the AI interface that is permanently present they say "I want to experience the late 1990's again, the movies and songs but especially the computer i had and the games i played, only i don't remember the exact details too well."

the AI spends a few seconds weighing up their personal data and also processes 1000's of TBs of online data, watches 1000's of movies, listens to 10,000's songs and plays almost every game from 1995 to 1999 while correlating and weighing up millions of other data items of the time

it produces the following:

- a beige computer case and crt from a 3d printer, it all works (actually it does nothing, a tiny share of nearby computing power generates all the actual outputs, but it appears to be PC, it even has components)
- 100's of complete games that look, play and feel a bit like 1990's titles - but have never existed before and will never exist after
- endless movies and songs all apparently real 1990's songs and movies but all generated on the fly, none have been seen or heard before and none will be ever seen or heard again - there is no shared culture at all*

.
*although if prompted the AI will generate a convincing online community who have 'seen', 'heard' and 'played' the games and will happily discuss it with our protagonist, whether by chat, forum, voice or video call

This occurred to me a few months ago, and i also wondered, "Hey, have you seen Terminator 2?" But the answer might be, "yeah, but with Stallone and the T1000 wins"...

I saw on reddit that GPT can do a really good simulation of a BBS, so the evolution of that with video etc sure points in that direction that we could completely wrap ourselves up in a generative experience.

I can see things happening already. Message boards and chats filled with bots pretending to be humans in as far as spamming message boards and the likes with tons of bots featuring some kind of pre-programmed goal, like flooding a board out of spite or to artificially inflate the number of users to con advertisers for increased payouts, hyping up something to manipulate market prices or something like that, making certain social media seemingly more populated than they really are for a variety of reasons or to flood social media to sway/manipulate popular opinion about something, for whatever reason.
Criminals, entrepreneurs and other creative beings will almost certainly have seen the potential for this by now.
Could even mean things like dating could turn back to something more done IRL instead of online because of all the fake humans dating around on the net.
Things could get really icky in some situations, but in the end things won't really change much when looking at the grander scheme.