
Ask HN: Does anyone else have the sense that “the good bit is over”? - hoodoof
Looking ahead, it feels like there&#x27;s less interesting things and less opportunity and less potential.<p>Consumer hardware, phones and computers seem to be &quot;good enough&quot; so demand is falling.<p>There seem to be fewer obvious ideas for changing the world with the Internet, as evidenced by the things like home food delivery being big news.<p>Dunno.  It just feels like the future of technology isn&#x27;t so exciting.<p>Does anyone else feel this way?
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ikawe
People so bummed out on a Friday?
[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/its-2016-and-the-promise-
of...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/its-2016-and-the-promise-of-the-
internet-is-dead)

Well, I remember a time when it "felt" like everyone with an ounce of
ambition, a computer, and the most rudimentary know-how should feel entitled
to spin up something with an impact.

I don't know if that was every _really_ the case. But it's clear that it's
certainly not the case now.

Also, the Internet (remember when you used to capitalize it?) is not the end-
all of technology. And when it came out, most folks didn't realize how
powerful it would be until much after. So what's next? Maybe we just have to
try harder to define our own success - find something you care about
contributing to. It's not "disruption" in the way it's portrayed in the tech-
tabloids, but in the end it's about how you choose to spend your time and
energy before you die.

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chipsy
In general it's safe to assume that the world will default to thinking that
you, I, and technology are all irrelevant. Like, people will say that it's
important in the same way that politicians say that voters are important.

So when it isn't irrelevant, it's because things have snuck in to change the
status quo. The internet, I think, is a big enough idea that it's still not
really seen it's full impact yet - today we just see the waxing phase of the
second attempt to lock down the network under the thumb of a few centralized
players. (the first one being AOL et al.) but networks are really quite
powerful, and I have faith that the pendulum will shift again.

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GregBuchholz
Synthetic biology seems like a pretty exciting area of study to me. Maybe get
a copy of "The Machinery of Life", or "Regenesis".

[http://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-
Goodsell/dp/038...](http://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-
Goodsell/dp/0387849246/)

[http://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-Synthetic-Biology-
Reinvent-O...](http://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-Synthetic-Biology-Reinvent-
Ourselves/dp/0465075703/)

~~~
hoodoof
Holy heck. Not something I can build from my lounge room with nothing but a
computer, an Internet connection, time and determination.

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larrymcp
Oh my goodness no: I don't feel like that at all! Life just keeps getting
better and better for humanity, year after year, and technology drives a lot
of that. No reason to think it's gonna stop now...

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Dragon256
I think there could be some amazing opportunities in the future with a
combination of 3D laser scanners, 3D printers and the Internet.

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kidgorgeous
Artificial intelligence, reusable rockets, and cryptocurrencies looks pretty
interesting to me.

