忆阻器。

虽然这个想法并不比1980年更新，但我相信直到2008年才有了一个可行的模型。如果它能通过研发，它将是自晶体管以来计算机硬件领域最重大的进步;至少，消除了次要记忆。

它提供了一种信息丰富的方式来传播信息和辩论。我发现它比标准的采访更具互动性，但没有博客评论那么嘈杂。

有一件事让我吃惊，那就是简陋的电子表格。非程序员的人用一个简单的公式网格就可以为现实世界的问题构建狂野而奇妙的解决方案。在桌面应用程序中复制他们的努力通常需要比编写电子表格多10到100倍的时间，最终的应用程序通常更难使用，充满bug !

我相信电子表格成功的关键是自动依赖分析。如果电子表格的用户被迫使用观察者模式，他们就没有机会得到正确的结果。

因此，最大的进步是自动依赖分析。现在，为什么没有任何现代平台(Java， .Net, Web Services)将其构建到系统的核心中呢?特别是在一个通过并行化扩展的时代——依赖关系图导致并行重新计算变得微不足道。

编辑:我刚查过。VisiCalc发布于1979年——让我们假设它是1980年后的发明。

Edit2:似乎艾伦已经注意到了电子表格——如果让他来这个论坛的问题是正确的!

不确定1980年的情况，但人工智能社区几十年来一直是一个创意生成器，他们仍然在做。

我认为自20世纪80年代以来发明的最好的想法将是我们不知道的。要么是因为它们很小，无处不在，以至于不引人注意，要么是因为它们的受欢迎程度还没有真正起飞。

前者的一个例子是单击并拖动以选择文本的一部分。我相信这是1984年首次出现在麦金塔电脑上。在此之前，您有单独的按钮用于选择选择的开始和结束。相当繁重。

后者的一个例子是(可能是)可视化编程语言。我不是说像hypercard，我是说像Max/MSP, Prograph, Quartz Composer, yahoo pipes等。目前它们确实是小众的，但我认为，除了思想分享之外，没有什么能阻止它们像标准编程语言一样具有表现力和强大的功能。

可视化编程语言有效地加强了引用透明性的函数式编程范式。这对于代码来说是一个非常有用的属性。他们执行这一点的方式也不是人为的——这只是由于他们使用的比喻。

VPL让那些本来不会编程的人也能编程，比如有语言障碍的人，比如阅读困难的人，甚至只是需要简单节省时间的门外汉。专业程序员可能会对此嗤之以鼻，但就我个人而言，我认为如果编程成为一种真正无处不在的技能，就像识字一样，那就太好了。

就目前来看，VPL只是一个小众的兴趣，还没有真正成为主流。

我们应该做些什么不同的事情

all computer science majors should be required to double major- coupling the CS major with one of the humanities. Painting, literature, design, psychology, history, english, whatever. A lot of the problem is that the industry is populated with people that have a really narrow and unimaginative understanding of the world, and therefore can't begin to imagine a computer working any significantly differently than it already does. (if it helps, you can imagine that I'm talking about someone other than you, the person reading this.) Mathematics is great, but in the end it's just a tool for achieving. we need experts who understand the nature of creativity, who also understand technology.

But even if we have them, there needs to be an environment where there's a possibility that doing something new would be worth the risk. It's 100 times more likely that anything truly new gets rejected out of hand, rather viciously. (the newton is an example of this). so we need a much higher tolerance for failure. We should not be afraid to try an idea which has failed in the past. We should not fully reject our own failures- and we should learn to recognize when we have failed. We should not see failure as a bad thing, and so we shouldn't lie to ourselves or to others about it. We should just get used to it, because it is just about the only constant in this ever changing industry. Post mortems are useful in this regard.

One of the more interesting things, about smalltalk, I think, was not the language itself, but the process that was used to arrive at the design of smalltalk. The iterative design process, going through many many revisions- But also very carefully and critically identifying the flaws of the existing system, and finding solutions in the next one. The more perspectives, and the broader the perspectives we have on the situation, the better we can judge where the mistakes and problems are. So don't just study computer science. Study as many other academic subjects as you can get yourself to be interested in.

计算机图形学，特殊效果和3D动画