Godot Isn't Making it
www.wheresyoured.at
Before we get going — please enjoy my speech from Web Summit, Why Are All Tech Products Now Shit? I didn’t write the title. What if what we're seeing today isn't a glimpse of the future, but the new terms of the present? What if artificial intelligence isn't actually capable

New Ed! Not much particularly new info, just a general lament and summary of the state of tech and how much has been pinned on magical thinking. Has some wonderfully quotable sections.

What if what we’re seeing today isn’t a glimpse of the future, but the new terms of the present? What if artificial intelligence isn’t actually capable of doing much more than what we’re seeing today, and what if there’s no clear timeline when it’ll be able to do more? What if this entire hype cycle has been built, goosed by a compliant media ready and willing to take career-embellishers at their word?

Please forgive my addition to the title, as it’s meant to be a play on “Waiting for Godot”, not a comment on the Godot game engine. Wanted to make that more clear than the title alone would.

  • TunaCowboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    50·
    17 days ago

    It’s a poorly chosen title, especially in tech, where godot is overwhelmingly understood to be a game engine.

    Waiting for Godot is a play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot

    • Sailor Sega Saturn@awful.systemsEnglish
      19·
      17 days ago

      Well maybe tech should stop taking over perfectly good words grumble grumble.

      Well half joking; there are much worse culprits than Godot (looking at you Apple) and something like “Still Waiting For Godot” may have made the reference easier to get.

    • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
      17·
      17 days ago

      “In popular culture” section coming in clutch per usual:

      The two Argentine developers, Jaun Linietsky & Ariel Manzur, were repeatedly tasked with updating the engine from a period of time from 2001 to 2014, and chose the name “Godot” due to its relation to the play, as it represents the never-ending wish of adding new features in the engine, which would get it closer to an exhaustive product, but would never actually be completed.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      16·
      17 days ago

      Came here to say something like that. Made me raise my eyebrow on why Ed might be talking about the best game engine.

    • David Gerard@awful.systemsMEnglish
      10·
      16 days ago

      Ed is presuming a high school education from his readers, where kids get hammered with the play whether or not they have any idea what it is

      out in the world, ~nobody has heard of the game engine