From: Mark Cassino > William Robb wrote: > >> You'all just don't seem to be getting it. > > OK - so when a superior technology comes along, the old technology > dies off and is gone completely. > > Like horse drawn buggies (replaced by automobiles): > > http://www.liveryone.net/ > > Bows and arrows (replaced by guns): > > http://www.huntersfriend.com/2007-Bow-Reviews/bow-specifications-charts-main.htm > > > > Hand woven fabric replaced by mass produced material: > > http://www.camillavalleyfarm.com/other/weavingguilds.htm > > Flint and steel (replaced by matches): > > http://www.survivalschool.com/products/fire_starting/Flint_&_Steel%20Kits.htm > > > Oil lamps were replaced by candles which were replace by gas light > which were replaced by electric light. (Good thing since oil lamps are > a 10,000 year old technology.) > > http://www.oillampman.com/ > > Books, movies, and radio - replaced by TV: > > Oh shoot, I guess the Internet has killed off all those plus TV... > > Folks don't ride horses to work any more (after all, its a 6,000 year > old technology). But I schlepped by the KKK rally held in downtown > Kalamazoo yesterday - and there were a couple dozen cops on horseback > working the crowd. So the practical application of horses has not gone > away. > > No one expects film to play the same role that it played in 1975. In > the near future it will not be a mainstream technology. People who > don't see an advantage to it, or who don't have the time, knowledge, > or resources to utilize it - won't use it. People won't be able to pop > by the local drug store and get film developed. But that's not the > same as it being gone completely, totally, eradicated. > > Advancing technology limits old technology, makes it more expensive, > drives it into specialized niches, but there is little historical > evidence to suggest that old technologies die off and are eradicated, > unless you start dealing in minutia like beta video tapes, cylinder > records, 8 track tapes, etc - which are not really categories of > technologies but rather very limited applications of them. That's > sort of like saying that steam powered locomotives disappeared so, of > course, all railroads have gone. > > Some form of film will last forever. Or least least as long as flint > and steel, oil lamps, and horses. And just as we once lived in a > society were everyone saw horses first hand every day, and now they > are a rarity, film will become a rarity. But it won't disappear. > > Cripes - there are still people taking daguerreotypes these days, > mercury poisoning or no...
Well said. Steam powered locomotives haven't disappeared entirely, mostly just removed to tourist railroads, where they're enjoying a revival of sorts - at least it seems there are more working steam lines today than there were 10 years ago. Maybe they were there all along, and the inter-net just makes it easier for me to find them. And there's a guy down the road apiece from here who's making a good living doing wet plate colloidian photography. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
