July 12, 2026
Ctrl+Alt+Delusion?
Against Usefulness
A paper computer blew minds — and the comments turned into an AR grief session
TLDR: The article shows off a room-sized computer system where paper can act like running software, reviving big ideas about more human, physical computing. Commenters were split between wonder and mourning, with many arguing this is the future augmented reality should have been before big companies made it boring.
A venture capitalist wandered into a Brooklyn warehouse, watched a computer program run on a sheet of paper, and the internet promptly made the real story about everything modern tech allegedly ruined. The essay behind Against Usefulness is dreamy stuff: paper that acts like software, hand-drawn bunnies animated on a table, music made with cards, and a room that works like a computer instead of forcing people to hunch over a glowing laptop. But in the comments, readers didn’t just swoon — they spiraled.
The biggest mood was heartbreak. One commenter basically delivered a eulogy for augmented reality, saying this was the future people once hoped for before big tech turned it into “floating screens” and career-ladder nonsense. That set the tone: this isn’t just a cool demo, it’s a reminder of a future some people feel was stolen. Others jumped in with more practical curiosity, asking what glasses could recreate this magic at home, while one developer confessed their own headset apps are stuck in the “prototype/useless” phase too — which felt less like a confession and more like a support group.
Then came the mystery subplot: is Dynamicland, the influential research lab behind this work, basically gone? One commenter noticed its site seems to stop in 2024 and immediately the thread turned detective. And of course, the funniest line cut through all the lofty philosophy with one brutally simple question: “How do you plug a keyboard into a sheet of paper?” Honestly? That’s the entire comment section in one sentence: awe, confusion, and a tiny bit of chaos.
Key Points
- •The article argues that commercially useful companies are often built on earlier research that initially appears impractical.
- •Folk Computer is presented as an open-source physical computing system where tagged sheets of paper can function as live programs within a room-scale setup.
- •The system was built by researchers Omar Rizwan and Andrés Cuervo, who previously worked at Dynamicland, Bret Victor’s lab in Oakland.
- •The article describes Folk Computer as using ceiling cameras, projectors, and physical-space coordinates measured in meters rather than screen pixel coordinates.
- •The article also discusses the author’s volunteer role with ACM and notes that the computing society was founded in 1947, now has more than 100,000 members, and awards the Turing Award.