François CholletVerified account

An old pattern at a higher level, which is an analogue a lower level pattern, but without the contextual concerns at that level that gave rise to the pattern in the first place isn't the same. Analogues are useful, but environments are different now. We will always reinvent.

We need to discuss the ethical consequences of our work using a historical lens due to the possibility of large scale consequences. For example: The Spanish first contact with the Americas led to a devastating plague which killed millions of people. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/how-europeans-brought-sickness-new-world …

Alan Kay said that computing is pop culture - "pop culture holds a disdain for history". Source: http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/interview-with-alan-kay/240003442 …

So many first-principles hidden in the piles of clocks.

New generation of tech every 9 months?

Tech moves so fast that the past quickly no longer correlates with the present or future except in certain timeless themes (e.g. every new tech will get ridiculed by media)

I listened to a presentation last year about how "traditional" sorting algorithms are inefficient on modern hardware and how they came up with a solution that reads contiguous chunks from RAM for better cache performance. Just like tape sorting algorithms from the 60s, I thought

Any tech history books you recommend?