I feel like this is a good time to remind you of HN's new guideline to avoid gratuitous negativity. :) Maybe I'm misreading, but you seem to imply that the creators of this device have never heard of a bicycle. Does that add to the discussion?
Downvoters: I'd appreciate if you would comment as well, since I can't imagine why you would downvote me for reminding someone of our community guidelines.
I haven't downvoted you, but i suspect that those who have have done so because they parse your comment as identifying kazinator's comment as a negative one, and that this identification is mistaken.
I understand. Can you explain why I'm mistaken though? His comment came off as fairly sarcastic to me, and didn't seem to contribute in any way. Surely most of us know what a bicycle is already.
Sorry, i meant that to read "and they believe that this identification is mistaken". I don't understand what gratuitous negativity is, so i don't have an opinion on this myself.
"Downvoters: I'd appreciate if you would comment as well, since I can't imagine why you would downvote me for reminding someone of our community guidelines."
Do not discuss your own downvotes. Do not interrupt the actual discussion to meta-discuss the scoring system. Do not address the "downvoters".
> Downvoters: I'd appreciate if you would comment as well, since I can't imagine why you would downvote me for reminding someone of our community guidelines.
While sometimes necessary, the topic of community guidelines is uninteresting and disruptive to the reason we're here. In this case, IMHO, it isn't necessary to bring up. The GP merely points out that humans have been augmenting our natural locomotion for a long time; that's not a criticism of the developers.
We may have to agree to disagree here. To me, the comment was clearly sarcastic, and therefore negative. I personally did not find the observation that bicycles exist to be interesting at all. Community guidelines may also be uninteresting, but they are important to improving the quality of discussion on HN, while this comment added nothing of value.
http://blog.ycombinator.com/new-hacker-news-guideline
Downvoters: I'd appreciate if you would comment as well, since I can't imagine why you would downvote me for reminding someone of our community guidelines.