This is somewhat off-topic, but it is a subject that has long interested me: how new technology is sometimes used to prolong the life of obsolescent technology.
This article describes a new library at the University of Chicago. All the books are stored underground in a gigantic three-dimensional array accessible only by robotics elevators. QUOTE: "The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library's ASRS will shelve materials underground by size rather than library classification, in racks 50 feet high, with a capacity to hold 3.5 million volumes in one-seventh of the space of conventional shelves." Reducing stack space by a factor of seven is a remarkable accomplishment. I am sure that 50 to 100 years from now, all new books will be published in electronic form only, and all the books now in this library will be scanned. There will be no need to bring them up from the stacks by elevator in order to physically hand them over to students. Even today, that is essentially and obsolescent activity. E-book readers have finally achieved contrast as good as paper. I expect they will soon have resolution and color better than paper. They will be larger, and they may even become somewhat flexible, like paper. When that happens, there will be no point to printing paper books for most uses. I suppose people will want some paper books for small children, or for things they often read, or just as nostalgic decoration. But the vast majority of books will be electronic. Reference books already are electronic. There is nothing wrong with prolonging the life of old technology. It is a good idea. You might as well get the most out of your sunk-cost investments. It is probably cheaper to bring the books to the students now than it would be to scan them all, and e-books are still not as good as paper ones in some ways. There are many other interesting examples this. One of my favorites was the use of steam tugboats to improve the performance of sailing ships after 1850. The so-called extreme clipper ships would not have been possible without steam tugboats to bring them into harbor. These were the fastest and most beautiful commercial sailing ships ever made. We see pictures of them and we assume they represent sailing ships throughout the ages, but in fact they were only made for about 20 years. They were designed with modern knowledge of physics and engineering, so they look quite different from traditional ships. The Flying Cloud was one of the most spectacular. The Flying Cloud lasted 23 years which was much longer than most ships at that time. By modern standards most of them were disposable objects. Modern ships are intended to last for decades and dozens of trips, whereas the extreme clippers lasted only five years or so. The masts and rigging were so stressed by the extreme performance they had to be refitted after every voyage. You can see how they piled on sails in this picture: http://www.sailmsc.com/Boats/club/pix/flying%20club%20full%20sail.jpg http://www.sailmsc.com/Boats/club/flying_cloud.htm The use of steel hulls in sailing ships is another example of bolstering the old with the new. There was a long period during which both steamships and sailing ships were used, from the 1850s to the early 20th century. I do not think that fossil fuels and other energy sources will compete with cold fusion for that many decades. - Jed
