I saw your comment in the original thread. Like you, I enjoyed reading Alex's thoughts on the subject, but his was a poorly thought out rant. Your diplomatic response actually brings a lot more to the table.
I'm also reminded of the proliferation of document-oriented DB technology. The relational model is powerful, and has a theoretical elegance that will not likely be replaced. Nevertheless, there are reasons no one's implemented a true RDBMS, and there are practical reasons (legitimate or not) that people fudge on the relational model, or decide to go direcly to the "Everything Hash" model.
I still think the document-organization metaphors of the future will drift more towards a Lifestreams-like model over time, and away from traditional structured/hierarchical filesystems.
We have the cycles to spare, and convenience for the users ultimately trumps convenience to computers (or even programmers).
I'm also reminded of the proliferation of document-oriented DB technology. The relational model is powerful, and has a theoretical elegance that will not likely be replaced. Nevertheless, there are reasons no one's implemented a true RDBMS, and there are practical reasons (legitimate or not) that people fudge on the relational model, or decide to go direcly to the "Everything Hash" model.