This is a post from Robin Sloan’s lab blog & notebook. You can visit the blog’s homepage, or learn more about me.

Eyeballs, not assistants

November 3, 2025

Here’s a single slide that will bake your noodle:

Does Ubiquitous Computing Need
Interface Agents?, 1992, Mark Weiser
Does Ubiquitous Computing Need Interface Agents?, 1992, Mark Weiser

“Make the com­puter more like things of which we are unaware: eyeballs, hands” … !

That’s from a 1992 presentation by Mark Weiser, the framer and prog­nos­ti­cator of “ubiquitous computing”, via Jackie Luo.

Honestly, look at page 5 of that PDF. It sees the world more clearly and accu­rately than every pitch for every AI agent put together.

I am so so sooo ice cold on the agent stuff. More on this another time, probably.

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