Okay so now that I have finished those books on spy planes and read this fantastic article on the mother of all demos, I know what happened:
Post WWII innovators had been born at the start of the 19th century and endured all kinds of awful things: Great Depression, wars, deportation, you name it.
After 1945, all had in mind to make a better world or at the very least, minimize the incredible losses of those times.
Everything was open, so they went on and created the tools we’re using today: computers, stealth planes, surveillance, internet, automation etc. Architects were doing the same, using new material and trying to sell the idea of prefab houses, knowing that it’s far more efficient, but in this case, it didn’t work.
From there, Boomers were born. They lived in a world where they enjoyed immense freedom and new tools. They, on purpose or not, locked down everything with thick ass layers of bureaucracy and inertia, making more money than ever.
Sharing, spreading, empowering *as many people as possible* were 60s values dissipating in a sea of dollars.
This is why starting with the 80s, nothing was moving as fast as before. Everything was incremental from then on. Sure, Moore’s law on the computer side made everything go faster. But nothing else was.
Today, we have linked everything up. We have all the knowledge in the world and yet, we’re struggling to apply solutions because of that thick layer of bullshit. People protect their power, bonuses, land, by principle, not because they need them.
We rationalize that a billionaire can’t possibly spend his money in his lifetime yet, everyone wants to be one.
We fucked ourselves with indulgence and we’re too stupid or stubborn to back away. Let’s reassess that.