I used to work with a number of LISP machine believers at the MIT AI Lab/CSAIL. They all had more modern computers for day to day tasks, but used the lispm for most of their programming. This wasn't that long ago (I left in 2010), and I suspect that those machines will remain in active use for as long as people can keep them running.
They all believed that the loss of the lisp machine was a serious loss to society and were all very much saddened by it. I never used the system enough to come to my own conclusions in that regard, but it was interesting food for thought. As somebody for whom Linux/POSIX is very deeply entrenched, would I even recognize a truly superior system if it was dropped in my lap? More importantly, would society in general? The superior technology is rarely the "winner"
They all believed that the loss of the lisp machine was a serious loss to society and were all very much saddened by it. I never used the system enough to come to my own conclusions in that regard, but it was interesting food for thought. As somebody for whom Linux/POSIX is very deeply entrenched, would I even recognize a truly superior system if it was dropped in my lap? More importantly, would society in general? The superior technology is rarely the "winner"