[cap-talk] Butler Lampson's upcoming talk

[Mark Miller]

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Winnie Cheng <wwcheng at mit.edu> wrote:
>  People have been inventing new ideas in computer systems for nearly four
>  decades, usually driven by Moore's Law. Many of them have been spectacularly
>  successful: virtual memory, packet networks, objects, relational databases,
>  and graphical user interfaces are a few examples. Other promising ideas have
>  not worked out: capabilities, distributed computing, RISC, and persistent
>  objects. And the fate of some is still in doubt: parallel computing, formal
>  methods, and software reuse. The Web was not invented by computer systems
>  researchers. In the light of all this experience, what will be exciting to
>  work on in the next few years?


"The Web was not invented by computer systems researchers."

I'll note that hypertext dreams started with Vannevar Bush's memex
paper in 1945. These dreams took off in the real world with the web
around 1995.

Object-capabilities started with Dennis & van Horn in 1965, and so is
today an unrealized dream for 7 fewer years than hypertext was by the
time it took off. Perhaps a lesson to learn is to pay attention to
those supposed non-"computer systems researchers" responsible for the
hypertext revolution regarding what other long-delayed revolutions
have potential.

Note that the coincidence of hypertext interest and capabilities
interest predates my own involvement by many years. All the KeyKOS
design documents were created and maintained on Augment. AFAIK, the
current KeyKOS web pages are the only living hypertext documents that
started on Augment and continued on the web after an automated
conversion process.

But a better lesson to learn is simply that one can't predict the
future by simple extrapolation from the past. Trends aren't fate.

-- 
Text by me above is hereby placed in the public domain

 Cheers,
 --MarkM