[LEAPSECS] operational time -- What's in a name?

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <3750F624-75C3-49A7-92A1-A2DE54AC40DA at noao.edu>, Rob Seaman writes:


>However complex the current worldwide system of systems comprising our  

>civilization, it will only get more complex. 


There are actually a significant undercurrent that indicates that this
will not be the case.

Most recent technology, while rich in features, gets used to nowhere
near it's technological potential, because people simply cannot
figure it all out.

The thing that seems to be widely overlooked by technologists,
possibly by the high-IQ crowd in general, is that Moores law does
not apply to wetware, and consequently, there very much is a fixed
upper limit for how much technology you can push on the general
population.

We can do the stiff upper-lip and thumb our noses at this well
documented phenomena, or we can accept it and realize that successful
technology in the future is that which makes things simpler instead
of more complex for people.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.