Illustration from "Life . . . in the FUTURE!" a picture book I wrote as a child. 1960s. #child #children #childhood #childhoodcreativity #creativity #drawing #pencildrawing #coloredpencil #coloredpencils #future #futurism #prediction #predictingthefuture #art #artwork #kid

Tech Bros and their Obsession with Retro Futurism

Some weeks ago Microsoft VP David Weston said that in 2030 (less than five years) we’d all be controlling our computers and using AI and voice control. I have less than zero interest in this 80s and 90s retro futurist nonsense. I have no desire to talk to my devices, I have no desire to use an “AI” for anything at all, it has absolutely no use for me and will not do anything to make my life better in any way. I do not want a digital assistant, I have no need or use for an assistant at all. I got rid of Cortana when I first got Window 10, because it was wasting space, I did everything I could to get rid of Copilot including just deleting Microsoft Edge. As soon as I got my phone I disabled Bixbe, and when Samsung forced an update that added Google “AI” BS I git rid of that too. 

I am not alone, I am the majority here. Only a small minority are actually interested in this retro futurist crap enough to consider any of these “AIs” more than a toy. I walk, I take the bus, and go out to coffee shops, people go to shops places to do work on their laptops and tablets. I get out into the world, unlike investors and corporate executives. I have never heard or seen anyone using any kind of voice control on their devices. The only person who I’ve seen ever uses voice control is my mother who is in her 60s. Most people don’t want digital assistants, they don’t care about “AI” or care to use it outside of just playing with it a little. These are not useful for the majority of people!

I don’t know why this 80s and 90s retro futurism has such a hold on wealthy tech people, maybe it’s the slowing development of computer technology or maybe it’s nostalgia (which always lies, nostalgia are the happy lies we tell ourselves about the past) but it is not the future. Futurism/futurology is just science fiction without self awareness and most science fiction is based on three things, plot, technological tends of the time, and rule of cool. Technological trends can change on a dime and what is cool is not always practical and even if it is people still might not want to use it. Technology does not advance exponentially (if it did we’d be on Mars by now, have permanent bases on the moon, safe nuclear powered electric cars, and common civilian space flight), it advances rapidly then slows (an S-curve). Even when it’s advancing, technological advancements are not always practical or useful. Even if it is useful and practical, you have to take into account human psychology, people still might not use something no matter how useful or practical. A humanoid robot may have some uses (very few, it would be cheaper and more practical to use multiple robots that are designed for specific tasks) but you run the risk of running into the uncanny valley and people can find non humanoid robots very endearing. Think of how any people have names their robot vacuums.

Futurism (or futurology) has never given accurate depictions of the future or how technology would advance. As said above it is just science fiction with out self awareness, and science fiction is based on technological tends of the time and rule of cool.  Futurists always assume technological trends will continue, the reality is trends change. In hind sight these technological trend changes seem logical, looking at why we haven’t been back to the Moon since the 70s, it makes sense. Been their, done that and it costs over $200 billion dollars (inflation adjusted). In 1969 futurists didn’t know the costs or how difficult it actual was to get to the Moon, all they knew is we went from barely getting off the ground in 1903 to “one small step for (a) man and one giant leap for mankind”, and they assumed this trend would continue far into the future. Things changed, humans have done the easy things now the hard things remain. That is the way technology advances, the easy things get done first, when the easy things are all done, the hard things remain, when the hard things are done, the very hard things remain. This is why flight technology went from being made by two brothers who made the first plane from wood, canvas, and an engine to companies and government spending billions on aircraft/spacecraft R&D. It has gotten a lot harder to advance aerospace technology.

We are getting closer and closer to that point in computer technology. The easy things have been done and most of the hard things have been done. The practical and useful to people uses of computer technology have mostly been figured out. This is where the push for crypto, the meteverse, and now the fake “AIs” is coming from. But that alone doesn’t seem to be enough to explain the push for “AI”, the “AI” push is so much harder than crypto and metaverses. Looking at David Weston, Musk, and Zucherberg it looks like it is this belief in 80s and 90s retro futurism. In their fear of missing out on exploiting the next big thing they are going all in on what they think the next big thing will be. These people grew up with 80s and 90s science fiction and futurism as visions of the future. Now when they are struggling to find the next big thing, the next money maker in a world were new technological uses that people will use are dwindling, so they falling back on old science fiction and futurism to find the next big thing. Zucherberg lost 47 billion dollars on his meterverce bet, now Microsoft, Google, Facebook (I refuse to call it “meta”) and others are betting far more on “AI”. Most people don’t care about “AI” though, at least as anything other than a toy, it has little to no uses, not nearly enough to justify risking billions. When the “AI” bubble pops hundreds of billion of dollars will vanish, all because a bunch of old and middle aged men can’t let go of outdated views of the future.

Update: Changed name and header.

Star Jedi font by Boba Fonts used in header.

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#AI #AIAssistant #AIBubble #chatgpt #DavidWeston #ElonMusk #Executuve #facebook #future #futurism #GenerativeAI #google #GoogleGemini #Grok #Inovation #MarkZuckerberg #Meta #microsoft #OldMen #predictingTheFuture #Retro #TechBro #TechExecutive #TechInvestor #technology #theFuture

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #464: Idiocracy.
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#idiocracy #prophecy #predictingthefuture #fashion #crocs #movies #satire #funfacts #moviefacts #movietrivia #didyouknow #strangebuttrue #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

🚀 So, apparently, the secret to predicting the future is an equation and a paper number. 📄 Meanwhile, #arXiv is like, "Forget time travel, we just need a #DevOps engineer!" 🤖🔧 Because clearly, the only thing more unpredictable than the future is a job in #open #science. 🌟
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17989 #predictingthefuture #technology #HackerNews #ngated

Watch Escape from L.A. and imagine it's Escape from El Salvador.

Biggest problem with the movie - the prez has the wrong hair color.

#BadMovies #Clairvoyance #PredictingTheFuture

The topic for the 2025-04-15 Weekly Dev Chat is career twists and turns. Inspired by someone I know debating if they should take a position at a new company or stay with their current employer. That got me thinking about my own career path, and how 20-year-old me would never have guessed I would end up starting my own consulting business. 20-year-old me assumed I would be working in the game's industry.

Did your career path turn out how you imagined it when you were younger? For people just starting, where do you see yourself in five to ten years?

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others. Details on how to join can be found at our website:

https://weeklydevchat.com/

#weeklydevchat #career #predictingthefuture

A small arc in #Userfriendly about getting your boss to let you work from home. But a 2001 joke about the cost of housing and living in a cardboard box when you work in one of those "tech hub" cities hits much harder 20 years later.
#UserFriendlyComic #PredictingTheFuture

PS: I miss Quake Deathmatches on the high school network. It's too bad that Steam is blocked at work and the security software prevents connecting personal computers to the rj45 sockets.

@anarchismhub
It's the right year for the Bell Riots, but I thought they were supposed to start in LA.
#StarTrek #PredictingTheFuture

Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #323: The Washington Pizza Index.
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#politics #predictingthefuture #freakonomics #washingtonpizzaindex #statistics #pizza #takeout #cia #nsa #pentagon #news #worldnews #worldevents #strangebuttrue #wtf #funfacts #bizarre #facts #comics #webcomics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn

#FinancialTimes writers‘ predictions for #2023: The war in #Ukraine will last all of 2023, and neither side will agree to freeze the conflict. At the same time, #Zelenskyy is waiting for the supply of weapons, and #Putin is “trying to regroup ”;
▪️Until April, there could be rolling blackouts in #Europe if the weather is cold.
▪️Biden will again go to the US presidential election, and Trump will be charged;
▪️In 2023 #China will not attack #Taiwan, but it may happen later. #predictingthefuture