I re-ran across this page which summarizes a couple of interesting talks by Alan Kay and some of the people at VPRI while doing some other research today and am noting it so it doesn't fall off the radar again.

The first presentation, How Complex is "Personal Computing"? discusses the complexity problem in computing and includes discussion of Gezira/Nile and OMeta as examples of ideas for simplification. The second presentation, Normal Considered Harmful (Or, How Much Like Frogs Are We Computerists?), is a more general discussion of the state of computing today.