I’m serious. Name one thing in computing that showed up after 1978 that wasn’t either an incremental improvement on a pre-1978 technology or a crappier but cheaper version of a pre-1978 technology. I’m not trying to produce sophistry here. There’s a huge difference in the level of novelty of original research in computing tech during the span 1940–1980 and the level of novelty in the same after 1980, & it relates directly to economics.
From 1940 to 1980, computer science was being done by folks with doctorates & experience in other disciplines, funded by…
