Soviet 80s supercomputer project "Start"

A forgotten Soviet mega-project from the 1980s has resurfaced, and the biggest reaction from the community is almost comically simple: "Wait... can anyone actually read this?" The article tells the story of Start, a heavily funded USSR attempt to build a bold new generation of computers after Japan announced its flashy "fifth generation" plans. The Soviet response pulled together top researchers from multiple cities, gave them serious money, and told them to build the future in just three years. Very normal, very low-pressure! They produced several working systems, software tools, and workstation prototypes, even if the most ambitious machine never fully made it to the finish line.

But in the comments, the real drama is the culture clash between historical tech nerd excitement and total accessibility failure. Instead of arguing over who had the better machines, the thread instantly veers into a more basic crisis: where's the translation? That lone comment lands like a perfect internet punchline. All this Cold War ambition, secret reports, elite teams, million-dollar foreign hardware purchases—and the modern audience is stopped cold by one very relatable obstacle: the post isn't readable to them. It's the kind of deadpan reaction that feels almost meme-ready, like the community collectively saying, "Amazing story, shame we need subtitles." The hot take isn't about whether the Soviet supercomputer dream was genius or doomed. It's that even the most dramatic piece of computing history can't beat the internet's oldest demand: please post in a language we understand.