Stepping Stones
Yesterday, while fishing around in old boxes and drawers for my Sims 2 disc, I came across a collection of old software, riddled with dust and coffee mug stains.
Floppy discs, on top of having an ironic name (they are in fact, very rigid), were a temporary software storage/transport technique. I don’t know if they knew that when they were invented, or if it was later established when they realised how impractical they were, but floppy discs were just a stepping stone in the development of technology. When was the last time you heard someone say, ‘hey, can you put the new ep of Suits that you downloaded onto my floppy disc?’. Never happened.
I read an extract of Literary Machines by Theodor Nelson who discusses all of the elements that go into hypertext as a concept, and he included all sorts of technology that is no longer used. Which prompts me to think about whether these complex theories would have come about if the now seemingly useless stepping stones were skipped through. Long shot, I know. But go ahead and ponder.