Hacker News Reader

What's the alternative?

Really often the alternative was not to make the journey. Whether that's the in-person visit to a customer site which could have been a video call (or an email) or the trip to go see how your Porsche was made in the factory.

WG21 (the C++ Standards Committee) only began to allow you to present proposals or attend committee meetings without flying around the world in... 2020 because of Pandemic restrictions.

Video conferencing was one of the technologies in Engelbart's "Mother of all demos" in 1968. Remember that year, not 2008, not even 1998, it was demonstrated in 1968 and yet I bet several readers of this comment have flown on an aeroplane to do something they could have done using video conferencing, almost sixty years later. What a joke.

Oh, of course, but I mean for moving people who want to move around. Someone else observed that ocean liners are less efficient than planes, so if you wanna go overseas there's no alternative.

Except, of course, for business meetings which can be virtual (or just an email). I'm asking what's a practical alternative assuming we still want people to be able to go overseas. I agree for land routes high speed rail is better, too. I don't really understand my downvotes just for asking about alternatives.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com