The Old New Technology
The old new technology is about going back to the source of both stories, ideas, products, services, and mostly source code of all past successful and failed things for clearly knowing why we have made all these technical choices and decisions that are actually impacting how we build and operate technological stacks and environment both in terms of systems of software and hardware. it’s about exploring the beginning of tech for building a better future of tech. One may say that it’s like recreating the wheel but it’s not by adding layers on layers of complexities that we will avoid being trapped into nodes of fiber and ethernet cables. There is an opportunity to rebuild whole parts of the actual tech stack from scratch using all the knowledge, expertise end experiences we have gathered building this on that is ruling our actual wired world. This actual technological ecosystem we could not live without, made of millions of servers, kilometers of cables, and thousands of satellites is transparently working in our point of view as users and consumers but it seems and sounds like those who operate it and administer it agree that it’s messy and could be simpler by design, easier to manage and flexible enough to be up scaled and downscaled when need and this instantaneously. The fact is that we are all afraid of rebuilding from scratch first and we don’t have the courage to do so because soon there will be this earning call and the financial result to be shown to the market should look nice and fine with a nice growth curve otherwise it will be messy for our jobs not only for this technological stack we have turned into a public company with billions of dollar of market capitalization.
Wallstreet with its flow of billions of dollars coming from all around the world has turned silicon valley, the mindset not the place, into a factory of projects to be IPOed rather than a factory of ideas that could make our world a better place not only for us human beings but all living and nonliving bodies. We ended up believing that it’s not opportune to recreate the wheel as if the whole tech industry was like the wheel of a car from Tesla that doesn't need a new shape and mechanics that all we need is to build new things fast by adding extra layers and using the existing already messy tech spaghetti we have created through trials and errors and for sure with passion mostly at the beginning of what we tend to call the personal computer revolution. Once personal computers were massively adopted by people and the internet came along, we started rushing for users, revenues and profit as fast as we can because there is this target IPO in 3 or 9 months given that we have these million users even if we are losing all this money that we have got from venture capitalists who have spotted the Gameboy game of startups funding. Tech Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists know that Millions of users with a negative cashflow can lead to billions of dollars of valuation because the financial market values future opportunities but when it comes to the tech industry we still have many market caps and high-value public startups still losing money a decade after IPO (I am not sure if it’s true but you get the idea). it’s doesn't matter because the venture capitalist gamers who helped bootstrap those ideas and give them brand value in the eyes of public investors went away with their profits for spotting the next projects to IPO and they don’t have time to wait years for a meaningful technology to be built. Things must go fast. Fast is the keyword at the cost of breaking things and making this tech environment I am referring to messier and messier.
“yes messieurs” would say this french capitalistic entrepreneur I am to these simulacra of digital experiences who got the chance to display some characteristics of addictiveness that are often results of hazardous bonheur la chance of a team of hustling entrepreneurs who broke many things still not fixed before landing this thing like this social media platform I can’t live without looking, clicking and touching.
Exploring past early discussions about tech by passionate early tech adopters and believers who were not bothering themselves by writing thousands of words on blogging platforms helped me see how the discourse has mutated from interesting and deep conversations about technical specs and implementations as well as ideas into millions of keywords like IPO, IPO, IPO, Revenues, Revenues, revenues, profits, profits, profits, MAU, MAU, MAU, Traction, Traction, Traction and let me just say Virality one time before we see another virus comes and disrupt us like what the coronavirus did.
So many keywords all linked to cash, stocks, swaps, collars, CDOs, and options while all these core topics about building a greener world and a more efficient world core technological stack on which we could rely for running safely all these dreams we have about this virtually augmented world filled with interesting virtual realities that could make us feel better and help us connect and amplify our actions. A world core technological stack assuring all the sus mentioned benefits while not only protecting our environment but improving it because I am among those who believe that with technology we could address all these environmental flaws like the growing concentration of carbon that we are seeing but this requires us to take cash and profits aside and to imagine a future of tech from scratch and to sit down and build it with bits and atoms. For building this future of tech, I am also among those who believe that past failed and abandoned technological solutions buried into history because of lack of market opportunity hold many treasures that we could use to build what I am tempted to call the Old New Technolgy, a technology that put us human being as well as our natural environment at the center of every decision, and choices. An old new technology that is safely trustworthy and designed to bring equitably opportunities everywhere a cable endpoint could reach and wave could land and as of today Friday, July 8, 2022, we all know that the internet can be everywhere, on each square meter or our world then let’s build this Old new Technology right Now.
