But, that DOES not mean that they do not exist.
We're riding the back of Moore's law and we can't even take advantage of it.
Think about it this way: take something you like, or think is well designed, and imagine it 10 years in the future. Now 20. Then 30. And so on. When does it start being a piece of shit? Because, you see, everything besides art and the most practical devices turn to shit eventually. It's happening to emacs, and a lot of other software, and no one wants to admit to it.
You're right, algorithms are timeless. But, you are an absolute idiot if you think that the tools we use don't influence how we conceptualize things. If you use C, it's almost impossible to think in a pointer-free manner (I mean stacks, not gc). Or that the tools we use influence who tries it. Most people have a horrid view of cs, and for good reason. The tools we use represent cs, and they do so poorly. Very, very poorly.
The point isn't emacs. Or quicklisp. It's that people become too satisfied with the status quo. They are happy to master what exists, and pride themselves in that. And they should, we need that.
But, we also need anarchy. We need people to invent things. We need new things. Change is good, it's inevitable.
I want to make this clear: I am an absolute idiot on this forum compared to most of you guys. But, that doesn't mean I can't be on the right side of fate, or understand that.
You're right, no one is forcing me to use emacs. Or gdb. Or Windows. Or C++. Or internet explorer. But guess what, they all get pushed by the popular kids.