But this is a step back to the cold, dead, static systems of UNIX. How about stepping back and taking a look at the dynamic, hackable environments of Lisp?
You should rather ask yourself why Lisp hasn't been able to attract the same large and active community in 5 decades that Go has been able to attract in 5 years.
I'm not saying either of them is better because or the amount of people they attracted. I merely ask why Go managed to interest more people than Lisp in an order of magnitude of time less.
I don't understand why Unix is equated to "cold, dead and static". Sure, that's the case for V7 Unix and descendents. Attempted Unix++ systems like Amoeba, Spring and Sprite were quite the opposite.
Further, if I wanted maximum dynamism and runtime hackability I'd go for a Smalltalk.
