“The Wheel of Reincarnation”, 2002 (; backlinks; similar):
[200222ya? Short technology essay based on 1968 (!) discussing a perennial pattern in computing history dubbed the ‘Wheel of Reincarnation’ for how old approaches inevitably reincarnate as the exciting new thing: shifts between ‘local’ and ‘remote’ computing resources, which are exemplified by repeated cycles in graphical display technologies from dumb ‘terminals’ which display only raw pixels to smart devices which interpret more complicated inputs like text or vectors or finally fullblown programming languages which render specified images locally (eg. PostScript).
These cycles are driven by cost, latency, architectural simplicity, and available computing power.
The Wheel of Reincarnation paradigm has played out for computers as well, in shifts from local terminals attached to mainframes to PCs to smartphones to ‘cloud computing’. Similar cycles can play out with other techs like software configuration. See also “The Eternal Mainframe”.]
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