A mostly blank slate

The combination of a tablet and a good Javascript framework makes it very easy to deploy algorithms to places where so far they have been scarce, like meetings, notetaking, and so on. The problem lies in figuring out what those algorithms should be; just as we had to have PCs for a few years before we started coming up with things to do with them (not that we have even scratched the surface), we still don’t have much of a clue about how to use handheld thinking machines outside “traditional thinking machine fields.”

Think about it this way: computers have surpassed humans in the (Western Civilization’s) proverbial game of strategy and conflict, chess, and are useful enough in games of chance that casinos and tournament organizers are prone to use anything from violence to lawyers to keep you from using them. So the fact that we aren’t using a computer when negotiating or coordinating says something about us.

The bottleneck, Cassius would say nowadays, is not in our tech, but in our imaginations.