Japanese control software for things like processing tools is horrible.

To me it shows that software is not just computer engineering. It's a type of problem-solving that's very cultural and at times, more based in creativity (something that's hard to formally teach) than math or physics skills.

 

What are your expectations for the impact your observation will have? To me it seems like the answer just might be zero.

 

What are your expectations for the impact your observation will have? To me it seems like the answer just might be zero.

Zero, it's just a fact as I see from personal experience since the 90's working for Fujitsu for ten years back then.

Japan is unlikely to be a software leader.

 

Zero, it's just a fact as I see from personal experience since the 90's working for Fujitsu for ten years back then.

Japan is unlikely to be a software leader.

So, you fancy yourself to be the great motivator that will foment a change in that situation.

 

So, you fancy yourself to be the great motivator that will foment a change in that situation.

No, that would be stupidity.

I wrote some pretty basic fab tool management display software for a old vax (VAX-C) and vt320 network at their site in the US. They seemed to be amazed and requested I write a version for a site in Japan via a long distance modem connection. IMO was sort of crazy because the software source was on their systems and they owned the source (but I did it) but also typical of my experience there with software development.

 

 

Interesting. I can easily believe that cultural differences lead to different attitudes towards "creativity". We Americans take pride in "yankee ingenuity". We're descended from people that had to innovate or die, literally. But then we set up a school system designed to crank out mindless assembly line workers. "I think we're turning Japanese, I really think so."

 

The fact that they once thought Prolog would launch them to the apex of software development was enough evidence for me. (this was in the ‘70s if I recall correctly.)

 

Interesting. I can easily believe that cultural differences lead to different attitudes towards "creativity". We Americans take pride in "yankee ingenuity". We're descended from people that had to innovate or die, literally. But then we set up a school system designed to crank out mindless assembly line workers. "I think we're turning Japanese, I really think so."

I recall all the fussing over their 5th generation project, there were some in Britain and America spreading fear of the imminent destruction of Western technical prominence, it was quite hysterical. The Japanese have long been described as a copy cat culture though, innovation playing a far smaller role than many other countries.

Even their own society is largely copied from China, many things we perceive as "Japanese" in fact long predate the establishment of Japan.

So I personally never really fretted about that 5th generation plan, though many industry experts at the time did...

 

I recall all the fussing over their 5th generation project, there were some in Britain and America spreading fear of the imminent destruction of Western technical prominence, it was quite hysterical.

Yes, that is what was talking about.

 

Turning Japanese, by the British punk group The Vapors.

 

Turning Japanese, by the British punk group The Vapors.

I loved that song back when it came out (i was 20), it seemed to come out just around that time, when Japan was taking over the memory market, they were in the computing press about that before the 5th Gen thing kicked off.

 

Turning Japanese, by the British punk group The Vapors.

I was waiting patiently for someone to get my joke.

The song was long rumored to be about the singer squinting from excessive chicken choking. That sold records and so the band didn't firmly deny it for decades. But the writer has now fully denied it.