What Kills Old Technology?
When I was much, much younger, I was online. Every summer, I would spend a couple weeks with my grandparents. My uncle, a professor of computer science at a nearby college, secured for me a spare computer, a modem, and user account. A handshake later and I was connected to the network. A further authentication and I was online.
Looking back, the early internet didn’t really do much. I had access to a wealth of information, and I would spend hours crawling through Gopherspace, soaking up information like a sponge. Years later, and Gopher is a figment of the past, lost forever to the ever-evolving digital landscape.
What kills old technology?
It would be unreasonable to ask technology to stop. In the almost 20 years I’ve been plugged into the internet, there have been too many advances to count. The most miraculous, perhaps, is the World Wide Web. The web, it seems, has completely revolutionized the internet and the way people approach cyberspace.
Major increases in computing power has also played a major role. As computing power has increased so too have software capabilities. Hardware and software have moved in tandem, one driving innovation for the other.
Perhaps approachability is the single greatest reason for the death of older technology. Most users today are not terribly sophisticated, learning how to use a particular piece of software almost by rote. For the average user, the web is synonymous with the internet. GUIs have grown more sophisticated, allowing for simpler use. The dumbing down to technology is a double-edged sword; while simpler technology allows more users access, it does move those same users into “walled gardens” where they are restricted from taking full advantage of the available tech.
Another reason old technology falls by the wayside are market forces. Recently, internet service providers (ISPs) attempted to kill off Usenet by restricting access to all but a small subset of newsgroups, if allowing access at all. In my opinion, these unilateral decisions are the most destructive to both the internet and innovation, as they allow ISPs to determine what technologies are available for their own short-term profits.
A final reason for the demise of old tech is simple consumption. We’ve been trained to want the latest gadget or hot toy. New technologies simply push the old out gradually. As with most internet technology, a certain critical mass is necessary for the continued existence of that tech. As users migrate to new systems, the old simply fade away.
Children born in the last 10 years will have no idea how rich and creative the internet.
