When you hear Big Tech CEOs pronounce the future of AI with authority, keep in mind that Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs thought the Segway was going to revolutionize the world. Jobs said it would be as big as the PC. Now you can go look it up to find out what it was.
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@lauren I wrote it in my Newton, "Az blG ah a tV !"
@lauren
There was one for sale near me last month for $100. I almost bought it.
@lauren The mythology grown around big tech figures has always been fed with these images of infallibility.
The stark reality is more like that some single good shot boosted them enough, so to have funds to try new shots.
Jobs failed to be believed inside his own company, like when he translated the Alan Kay's ideas in the Newton, with the utopic Next, or when he hired and let go the inventor of laser printers: Adobe's success is still thanks to Apple's failure. Add also companies they ruined.
@lauren The marketing was wrong. Segway's are basically horseless chariots, so they needed holders for assault weapons, strong shields, all the basic war stuff the old chariots used to have. Plus electronic warfare capabilities. <sarcasm>
Also, Metaverse.
Suppose something might come out of it someday? Metaverse gave us nice VR headsets, Segway makes really nice E-Scooters these days... Datacenter lasertag hall revolution coming.
@dimenzio Yeah, discussed in depth in others of my posts. Thing is, the fundamental fallacies are the same, expecting people to spend lots of time in VR headsets (which have many real uses, the Quest 3 is a marvel of tech), or standing on those scooters, or letting AI agents run amok in their data.
@lauren
It's two things I really like myself too!
The e scooter is my daily transport method to and from work for example. But like yeah... new PC? lol.
And yeah they just aren't going to make the money back.
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@guenterhack "As big as the PC", he said. C'mon.
Oh, I love Segways. In the sense that I see some twice a year, and it's always a family taking a guided tour and everyone but the dad looks pretty embarrassed about riding one. I can't help but smile...
@lauren cops use them in European inner cities that aren't suitable for cars/bikes. While they weren't as revolutionary as they were made out to be, they aren't exactly useless either.
@lauren I saw a Segway mobility scooter the other day in the downtown area, a slim one like Lime scooters. I think it was a personal device.
Self-driving cars by 2020, Mars colonies by 2025, 3D food printers in every kitchen by 2020, Google Glass AR everywhere by 2015... they're never wrong!
@ralfmaximus Yeah, but at least we have the global Hyperloop network!
After all the hype, when the Segway was actually unveiled on "Good Morning America", host Diane Sawyer voiced what pretty much everyone watching must have been thinking: "Is that it?"
I think the Segeway tech morphed into some interesting e-boards and e-unicycles, but yeah...
'The Next Big Thing' as announced by self-appointed "Thought Leaders" (I really dislike that term BTW), rarely turns out to be.
@lauren
1. AI is important but overhyped
2. Most tech CEOs don’t have unusual insight, they just parrot conventional thinking in their peer group or say whatever is in their financial interest
So it’s weird you that you picked two of the few people who repeatedly proved they were ahead of the curve
I think they were/are also terrible people, but give the devil his due