At the end of May the DGP lab had its 40th anniversary. It was a well-organized two-day event, with participants from all periods of the lab. You can see the program and some pictures. It was very interesting to see what changed and what didn’t in 40 years. Obviously today we have much stronger computers. But some projects they were doing in the seventies were really striking. They developed devices like digital pens and multi-touch surfaces. They did real-time user interaction with slow computers and low-level hardware engineering. However, in those days things were simple. One speaker claimed that UNIX today is worse than the systems it was aimed to replace.
One thing I learned was that while visual arts went after the invention of the camera from realistic to abstract expression, computer graphics started with very abstract works, like random dots and lines (see for example works by lab founder Leslie Mezei). At that time the little computers were capable of doing was considered ultramodern. Then computer graphics progressed into realism, until recently they reached some limits and turned back to non-photorealistic rendering.
There was an excellent presentation by Bill Buxton which eventually be online. In his book The Long Nose of Innovation he claims that since it takes 20 years to develop ideas to wide adoption, it is wrong for researches to focus only on the last development stages, since the early stages are at least as important on the long run. He warned against the process where the big American companies closed their research units and transferred industrial research to universities. He mentioned that in 1980 there were more research jobs for PhD’s in Canada than there are today, and a lot of the applied research in academia used to be done in industry.
The more I hear talks by seniors and pioneers I get the impression that in the old days people were much more interested in basic ideas. The first generations that got electricity, cars, television, and saw a man landing on the moon, had much more faith in core science and scientists, even if they don’t always deliver. Whereas today in some places the attitude is to ask how much money or publicity can we make from research. How many people today will get excited if a man lands on Mars? Are you going to be excited if they will find bacteria on Mars?
The nice (and sometimes frustrating) thing about science is that great discoveries are unpredictable and unexpected. Today there must be projects somewhere that will be huge in 20 years. Wait for the 60th anniversary.
