“Alpha” as in alpha software: buggy, not fit for release, a poor first approximation of useful, error-prone, almost certain to fail at the desired task, etc…

deleted by creator

Looks like we’re in for a science fiction double feature!

They did! And I weirdly kind of miss them for the entirely non-logical reason that they looked elegant.

Don’t get me wrong, I adapted in about 3 seconds when I made the switch to Mac OS X 25 years ago, but I irrationally kinda miss them just a tiny bit.

While I wouldn’t say that’s right, I also wouldn’t come right out and call it wrong either. This very much engages with the “Selfish Gene”, an heuristic model of thinking about evolution from the perspective of the gene itself instead of populations.

As an added amusement, the book “The Selfish Gene” came out in 1976, and is the source of the word “meme,” used somewhat differently than it is now, naturally.