Artifacts seem to never die

Robert Krulwich of NPR fame did a simple experiment and found that inventions seem to never become obsolete.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. It seems like actually bringing an invention into production is a great way to give it a life of its own. Once it is part of reality, it is much more persistent than an idea or plan alone.
2. Those of us who think of progress in terms of “out with the old and in with the new” are a little off-base. This has consequences for trying to replace old outdated technologies with new ones because it effectively makes the transitional time infinite. We should think in terms of making the number of people using an old technology as small as possible but face the fact that there will probably always be people who hold on to the old ideas.

I think the most interesting thing about the finding is that it expands my sense of the world to include technology of all ages. I live in a prosperous part of the world, and the old stuff is considered outdated, but I’m only seeing a tiny part of the what the World actually is.