Comment Re:Hyperbolic headlines strike again (Score 4, Insightful) 181
A lot of the value in your article is lost by trying to shoehorn "general purpose processors" into an argument about task-optimisation. The difference between properties relating to computational power and those relating to performance is really basic textbook stuff that we teach to undergraduates. Being able to run any program, and being able to run any program efficiently, is a difference taught in undergraduate architecture courses.
The parts of your article that are interesting and valuable would have been better served by a narrative that does not rely on a straw man. Cleanly separating the issue of power / performance and explaining that task-neutral optimisation is impossible would have been a better article, and one that would have been easier to write. There is a natural analogy with representation-bias in machine learning that would have provided more explanatory power without the unnecessary rhetoric. I know its the queue, but even so I am a little disappointed in your reviewers.