Fallthrough Defer Life Considered Harmful
Sep 23, 2025
Ron Evans, an experienced technologist and TinyGo evangelist, shares insights from his extensive career in embedded systems and robotics. He reflects on the lessons of past AI winters and their relevance today. Ron explains the significance of TinyGo and its application in running Go on microcontrollers. He discusses the societal impacts of AI on newcomers and offers advice for navigating this changing landscape. Ron also reveals his vision for combining TinyGo, computer vision, and automation in robotics.
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HyperCard Expert System Story
- Ron Evans built an expert-system environment in HyperCard called HyperX and published about it in Byte Magazine in 1990.
- The project was widely adopted by universities and government groups as a low-cost alternative to expensive AI systems.
Amara's Law Frames AI Hype
- Amara's law applies: we overestimate short-term effects and underestimate long-term impacts of technology.
- That framing tempers both techno-utopian and blanket-rejection responses to today's AI.
Hype Meets Management Demand
- Corporate demand and fear both drove rapid deployment after ChatGPT's demo-stage warnings.
- This created a sharp bifurcation between enthusiastic adopters and workers harmed by automation decisions.
