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I love the absolute irony of an article, printed in its day to carefully explain to people what Silicon Valley was, what a computer was, and what it was all about. Preserved for eternity on the internet and readable only on computers.


Sorry, that's not irony either, you perhaps mean an amusing coincidence.

Not being a gramar nazi but the word "irony" has a very precise meaning, misusing it devalues the language. Explicit in the notion of irony is contradiction, e.g. saying one thing while meaning the opposite (such as saying about the Kin mobile phone "now there was a successful product").

Sorry, personal bugbear, my problem.


Actually it doesn't have to be the opposite. It just has to be something repurposed into a context not intended by the original meaning.


Granted, the original claim of irony was still incorrect.

EDIT: no, actualy I still disagree. Mere 'repurposing' in the "black is white" sense is not enough, there has to be contradiction.


The irony is that the article takes pains to describe what a computer is. Now, the only way to read the article is on an online version, and you obviously must know what a computer is in order to read the article. You're unlikely to find old back issues of Playboy in a library. I know what you mean, a more solid use would be if the article had said 'computers will never take off' and now the article is availabe only on computers. Whether it's an amusing coincedence or hard core irony as you describe, I think it's fair use of the term.


That's not actually the only way to read it. I have a copy of that particular Playboy issue, which is where I first read this interview. :)


Are you trolling? Because your post is the very definition of irony.




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