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

[Rob Seaman]

On Mar 28, 2008, at 4:12 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


> 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.


Excellent points - I'll buy the first round if we're ever at the same  
conference.  Most Mac users would take credit for saying it first :-)

"High-IQ" is an adjective devoid of semantic content, however.  See SJ  
Gould's "Mismeasure of Man" or Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.   
Binet invented IQ to discover the underperforming tail of the curve,  
not "smart people".


> 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.


100% agree, but the definition of "simpler" is "maps elegantly onto  
the real world".  The Earth does rotate, the Moon does steal its  
angular momentum, the Sun does illuminate our lives.