Journey

Every wave I lived through, in five markers. Each one taught me something I carry into AI.

A layered abstract suggesting decades of technology evolution
  1. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: years}

    Silicon

    When chips were the news. You could see them. You could understand the boundary between hardware and software because the hardware was visible. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: a specific moment Deepak wants from this era.}

    Visible mystery
  2. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: years}

    Analog computers

    The quiet long dusk of analog computing while the digital wave was being born. Most people skipped this era. I lived through it. It is the bridge between the world that was and the world that is. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: Deepak's specific role/observation.}

    Bridge era
  3. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: years -- approximately 1995-2001}

    The .com era

    When the web invented itself in real time and we invented ourselves alongside it. Everything seemed possible, then everything seemed impossible, then everything just was. The lesson I carry from this era: hype and reality both run on the same track, just at different speeds.

    Reinvention
  4. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: years -- approximately 2003-2020}

    The internet maturing

    After .com, the web became ordinary. Mobile happened. The cloud happened. The platforms became the gravity. This is the era where you got used to AI tools without realizing they were AI -- search, recommendations, translation, autocorrect.

    Becoming ordinary
  5. {NEEDS HUMAN INPUT: 2022-now}

    AI

    The supersonic jet. It flew by so fast that even people who built the infrastructure of the previous era are watching from the runway. I am writing for the people on that runway. I want to give them the binoculars to see where it went, and the means to catch up.

    Supersonic jet