[HECnet] Younger generations

[Paul Koning]

> On Apr 21, 2021, at 2:14 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
> 
> On 4/21/21 2:12 PM, Keith Halewood wrote:
>> With what was going on about RT11, I showed a much younger colleague some of the conversations on this list.
>> 
>> Let’s just say that I fear for the future of the human race.
> 
>  I share your concern.  Why don't you try to get him interested in the
> vintage stuff?  At LSSM, we've found that a great many of the younger
> folks actually do get interested, when they take the time to see just
> how cool things used to be...which usually translates to "when someone
> like us takes the time to show them".
> 
>  We've also found that many younger folk appreciate the elegant
> simplicity (relatively speaking) of vintage systems.
> 
>              -Dave

Indeed.  While a lot of us are old timers, there definitely are younger generation members involved.  To pick one example: the PLATO system (described at cyber1.org) has a non-trivial percentage of users on it that never experienced the original system.  Some are just using it, some are actually creating new software.  A group from Switzerland is using it as the platform to teach a course about computer gaming design, including some newly created PLATO games!  And I think the current expert in PLATO terminal restauration isn't old enough to have seen the original, yet he has restored a number of original units to full operating condition.

	paul