Comment by stymaar

9 days ago

> Very narrow? The masses could get a computer for almost all the time integrated circuits have been produced.

The “personal computing for the mass” era hadn't even started when I was born, and I don't even consider myself old yet.

> And the entire time, better manufacturing pushed prices down at least every few years.

It's not because something happened before that it will necessarily happen again.

> Even at current prices, computers are available for the masses.

Computers are still available, but for the first time they are significantly less affordable than just a year ago. And nobody's saying the personal computer era is over yet, we're arguing that it's a possibility in the near future, and you won't convince me otherwise by saying “but it has always been like that” because it's not how it works, and because I'm just old enough to know it hasn't.

The “personal computer” has already been mostly replaced by locked-in terminals in the general public, so it's not like this worry is coming out of nowhere.

6 comments

stymaar

Reply
Dylan16807  9 days ago

The masses could get one in the 70s or 80s depending on your exact threshold. Integrated circuits had only existed since about 1960.

And the manufacturing improvement and price drop ramp has been going for 65 years. It's not guaranteed but better lithography machines keep being built and it's still happening with CPUs and GPUs.

RAM at this level of profit is unstable.

  • stymaar  8 days ago

    [flagged]

    • Dylan16807  8 days ago

      > You are embarrassing yourself. «Ce qui est excessif est insignifiant»

      Or you could not be an ass.

      I think you're saying it would take an unreasonably extreme threshold to make that statement true? It does not. Note that "could" is different from "sufficiently motivated". Even with the limited abilities of computers then, 15% of US households had one by the end of that period, let alone the 46% and 37% numbers for school and work use. If computers were as useful as they are today, the household number would have been well over 50%.

      > If the hyperscalers are able to make more money from these chips

      There's a limit on how much volume they can absorb.

      2 replies →