> ...but it doesn't feel like this project is actually going to achieve it's goals beyond letting a small number of lucky users play around with stuff.

Will they end up building some product that will be adopted by droves of customers and offers a completely new paradigm for interaction? Probably not.

But I'd argue that's hardly where "esoteric" research like this ends up going, and in my book that's OK. Bret Victor, who is behind Dynamicland, never shipped the full drawing app from his interactive visualizations talk as far as I know. Neither did anyone ever get to buy or download the editor he shows in "Inventing on Principle" as a new IDE that offers incredibly great feedback while programming.

Nevertheless, his talks are among the most inspiring things I and I think many others have ever seen in the area of HCI, and at least in my case are responsible for a large part of my renewed interest in the field.

Will anything out of Dynamicland capture people's imagination and enthusiasm like that as well? Maybe. Maybe not. But the point is to explore, and I applaud those who do.