20 Jun
2004
20 Jun
'04
2:01 p.m.
On Sun, 20 Jun 2004, David V. Corbin wrote:
Are we really "doomed" to re-invent the vacuum tube? ;)
Does it matter
that some knowledge is lost as generations go on?
I think it does matter. Thinking "Those who forget the past are doomed to
repeat it". There were many "errors" made during the
development phase of
each earlier generation technology. People learned from these mistakes and
finally made a workable technology for their generation. If the information
is truly lost, then time/effort/etc will again be wasted. In some case this
waste may incude enough overhead to cause perfectly good ideas to be
abandoned just before "the breakthrough".
Again, I'm thinking in terms of vacuum tubes, and I can't see how losing
the knowledge of how they worked is going to affect the future, or even
the present for that matter. We're so beyond them technologically that
they are irrelevant today.
If we knew we were going to be plunged into another Dark Age (becoming
likelier every day at the rate things are going) and somehow all knowledge
subsequent to when vacuum tubes were state of the art is going to be lost
then sure, I can see how teaching vacuum tube theory would be useful.
But, as pessimistic as I am about humanity right now (or at least the
future of the US) I don't think it's very realistic to assume this will
happen.
We still have historical records of how they were made. We still have
(with some glaring holes) historical records of how all manner of
technology for the past 5000 years has been accomplished, and we can
re-learn and resconstruct old technology as we wish (mainly for hobby, but
there are examples of utility, though rare).
It would be neat to know how the Egyptians built the pyramids, but we have
cranes and stuff for that today, so even if we knew their methods, is it
really practical to teach them in engineering school?
So one question might be: do we really need to overload EE students with
theory about vacuum tubes when they'll probably never use them, much less
come across them in the real world today? Or is it sufficient to have
historical records on file for posterity?
I am remembering a book I read many years ago
[can't place the title or
author right now, but it may have been a "short" by Isaac Asimov]. The basic
premise was:
1) Information was being lost, so a special class of people were set up to
be caretakers [it was a high honor]
2) Time passed, knowledge grew, the caretakers grew, until there were more
caretakers and "regular" people.
3) Civilization began to depend totally on the caretakers, who specialized
in "old" knowledge.
4) Civilization became stagnant
Alas, perhaps it is necessary for information to become lost.......
It's called "progress".
[Not even pretending to know the answer to this one]
Me niether, but I think I have a good idea as to what it is :)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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