Hacker News Reader

Just as telephones were a step backwards from telegrams, every other HCI mode has been a step backwards from the Xerox Alto :P

In what sense were telephones a step backwards from telegrams? That seems completely wrong to me.

Unless your whole post was sarcasm...

They probably mean synchronous vs async communication as well as the compactness of text versus audio in terms of information density.

Signal to noise ratio maybe.