The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThing is, in the ‘olden days’, the only thing you could do with a home computer was tinker - the job of a computer was to be a computer but little else. And the number of people interested in doing that was small. Today, the job of a computer is everything. Computers are in everything and do everything. They are our interface to the world. Their value is what they enable - writing, tax returns, video consumption, gaming and everything…
I understand this is ACM, but I would say the decline has strictly been a failure of software. Specifically, corporate IT's failure to deliver general purpose development tools usable by anyone in a company to make computers do work for them (aka programming). There's still a ton of general value that could be delivered by general purpose processors/computers. But instead, most non-programmers live in a Kafkaesque reality where the only programs they have access to don't do what they want…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 553
- Total comments
- 449
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-02-23 | The decline of computers as a general-purpose technologyFirst breakout · Best thread | matt_d | 309 | 218 |
| 2021-02-24 | The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology | tmfi | 2 | 0 |
| 2023-10-21 | The Decline of Computers as a General Purpose Technology (2021)Latest 20+ point return | yeesian | 242 | 231 |