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Comment by njharman | Hacker News Reader

> the art/science of aerodynamics in modeling has fallen by the wayside.

You are not wrong. That is a valid lament.

But, this is the definition (or at least a very common result) of innovation/progress.

Tech/automation advances to the point that non-artists, non-experts can do a thing competently or even expertly. Photography use to require expensive equipment, skill, and knowledge. Modern advances in digital sensors/lenses/flashes/post-processing makes everyone able to take professional quality photos. There is, of course still masters and talented artists that surpass. But the floor for everyone has been brought up to expert level at least.

Same for film/video, driving, complex maths, and many more.

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> Modern advances in digital sensors/lenses/flashes/post-processing makes everyone able to take professional quality photos.

For newspapers, maybe, but the tiny optics on phones rule out a lot of photographic techniques, to say nothing of sensor quality when trying to pull 20+ MP out of a sensor the size of a tab of acid

My iPhone 11 Pro still takes crap pictures compared to my FX (or even DX) camera body, and that's with all of Apple's idiot-proofing AI bullshit

Of course, otherwise those fancy cameras would have no market and disappear. Just like film is pretty much completely gone now, as are glass plate cameras. The truly inferior tech disappears and what's left fits some extreme niche where it surpasses the cheap consumer stuff in some way. There are things you can do with a PC that you can't with a smartphone too.

That's incredibly optimistic of you to call the PC dead. I really, really, hope (and am pretty sure) that you are wrong

I think the death of the PC won’t happen until phones and similar have the same power user capabilities as one. As long as we need a PC to build things for our phones, they’ll exist in some form.

The PC for everyday regular usage though is indeed dying. My girlfriend has an iPad Air with the keyboard case from Apple and it’s her primary computing device!

Not death of the PC! Just the presence of more numerous and cheaper smartphones. They're superior to PCs for most people but not for everyone.

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