I Love the Computer
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A personal reflection on loving computers amid AI hype and corporate greed.
The author recounts discovering computers in the early 1990s with an IBM 486 DX6, nurtured by tech magazines and later the early Internet. This passion shaped his identity, leading to a career in programming and open-source contributions. He now feels the tech space has been invaded by marketers and capitalists who exploit the technology for profit, scraping open-source work into plagiarism machines. Despite this erosion of idealism, he remains hopeful about decentralized, self-hosted alternatives and affirms his enduring love for the computer.
What commenters are saying
Commenters split on whether AI is snake oil. Some argue the comparison is unfair because LLMs are genuinely useful, e.g., for bootstrapping knowledge in new fields. Others contend the term applies to the hype ecosystem, not the technology itself, noting that AI is marketed as a cure-all while failing to deliver on grand promises like replacing programmers. A few point out that historical snake oil actually had benefits, and the problem was fraudulent marketing, mirroring today's AI hype. The thread does not directly contest the article's nostalgia.