Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!chou
From: chou@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Pai H Chou)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Walkman computers
Message-ID: <8932@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 19 Jan 89 13:55:42 GMT
References: <336@belltec.UUCP> <27304@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: chou@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Pai H Chou)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 31

The Walkman Computer was discussed in our "Pippin" proposal,
a finalist entry in Apple's contest.
But it was only part of a bigger picture.
Our proposal includes a desktop version with a module that can
recharge the walkman (and for data transfer),
electronic papers which are simple computers themselves but
can hook up to either the walkman or the desktop computer,
and a scanner-printer.

I think a portable computer will not be able to
completely replace a desktop computer, much like the way
component stereos co-exist with walkman.
Personal computers will follow the distributed-system
trend, because all the devices are becoming smarter.
If a general-purpose computer can solve a specialized problem, then
a dedicated device can probably do it better. (take
music keyboard, for example.  Try typing music on your letter keypad!)
(or using the mouse, for that matter)
Many problems will also be moved to dedicated devices
except for the jobs that personal computers are really good at,
like number crunching, text/graphics editing, database, programming,
and new applications to be dreamed up.

Certain ideas may sound good but may not really be that practical.
I think not everybody will want (or can afford) a cellular phone,
even in the year 2000.   A general-purpose computer may be almost
as expressive as a Turing Machine, but the fact that it is expressive
does not mean people will want to use it to solve all of their problems.

--
Pai Chou