CLOSED: [2018-10-17 Wed 21:59] SCHEDULED: <2018-10-17 Wed> :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2018-10-17 Wed 21:37] :ID: 2018-10-17-ted-nelson-interview :END: :LOGBOOK: - State "DONE" from "STARTED" [2018-10-17 Wed 21:59] :END: Here is a really interesting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVU62CQTXFI][interview]] with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson][Ted Nelson]] as he tries to explain the concepts of a "general purpose machine" as opposed as the "computer" in 1979: #+BEGIN_EXPORT HTML #+END_EXPORT If you listen carefully, Ted is not only explaining the concept of the Internet. He is also describing a general purpose machine. According to my interpretation, we *still* do not have those general purpose machines as our current computer systems still rely on [[id:2018-08-25-deskop-metaphor][metaphors that are based on the limitations of the physical world]]. Meanwhile, even the world wide web with its web pages is more advanced as our desktops and notebooks: one single piece of information may be accessed on multiple "locations" on a web page but [[id:2018-08-04-links][not on our computers]]. After the domination of the cloud-based, centralized services of multinational tax-avoiding organizations, a different approach will get popular once more: decentralization. People will start to like the idea (again) that they are the masters of their own sensitive and valuable data. Desktop computers will get important again. Something that Ted has observed and also predicted: "they should not have been centralized in the first place" ([[https://youtu.be/RVU62CQTXFI?t=1197][19:55 in the video]]). A totally different but nevertheless interesting question will be whether or not we are able to overcome the limitations of nowadays OS patterns. Will we understand, that any strict hierarchy is not able to map the real world? And how could we approach this transitional process to a new way of working with computers which may become general purpose machines some day in the future?