- That whole really weird light-on-details announcement about being able to super-duper-multithread already multithreaded machines
- that post CRD made about Capitalism permeating every single aspect of our existence
- the omnipresence of statistically generated pixel sludge
What are the true limits of computation if profit incentive wasn't a factor? Because of course Capitalism will say there will be no incentive to push computational limits without a profit motive, but holy hell, I've lived with computers for over three decades and past a certain point, things just stopped getting faster. With generative tools like Copilot and Midjourney, It feels like a fire department moonlighting as arsonists just to give themselves a reason to be paid by the city.
I can't find the story, it was decades ago when I read it, but there was one guy who programmed machines and he was really really good at his job, so much so that he would write his code to match the size and speed of spinning memory drums, absolutely no wasted cycles whatsoever.
Obviously, that was far, far more of a necessity back then than it is today, but as I try to get this old Zenith PC up and running again, it kinda fucks with me how much we are throwing away in transistors and heat and resulting e-waste.
What would a from-scratch OS and software ecosystem that isn't TempleOS look like on modern hardware if time and effort was no object? If there was nary a shareholder to please?
