Everyday things if they last long enough in good condition wind up more interesting to others than their owners. There is something backwards about that.
Let us start by considering our own lives and contemporary customs. Yard and garage sales, and also estate sales which more specifically mean someone has died and left stuff, attract great interest from a broadly diverse group in terms of age, sex, and other demographics.
This has now moved online. Sites such as e-Bay are wildly popular.
What is it about someone else’s old things that anyone finds so attractive? Is it the chance for a bargain on something of quality? “Vintage” is a word we hear often when simply identifying the item as old would seem more accurate.
We might as well move quickly to the subject of antiques. Old stuff accrues value. The fact there is a show called Antique Roadshow reveals another aspect of this. It is apparently a kind of entertainment. The thought some old junk you have from God knows where might be worth a lot because it is old really excites some people, even vicariously.
This is a commonly held belief, an accepted fact, that things gain value as they age, despite all common sense.
Consider a smartphone. Would anyone line up for a reissue of flip phones or the oversized bricks we used to carry around, using exactly the same technology used decades ago? Electronics for practical use are apparently a different matter.
But wait! What do old computers go for as either museum pieces or collector’s items? I for a time was enamored of older computers. I used to buy them and fix them, mix and match components, and tried briefly to resell them.
It was a brief hoarder period in my life. I even created sculpture out of motherboards and other modules. I quickly, however, experienced my own digital transformation well in advance of when those terms became common parlance.
I determined there was absolutely zero value in old electronics. Using any such device beyond its essential compatibility with broader network (cloud) and software (application) elements actually put one at a disadvantage, if not immediately, definitely in the longer term, when a forklift upgrade could cost many, many times the price of just staying current as things evolved.
It is in fact a measurable thing that can be defined mathematically: N-X, in which X is the number of upgrades behind one is in software versions for instance.
At another time I can share case studies I have from over the years, stories of financial software running on old computers, never having been upgraded until there were no computers left on which it would run, or no versions of the software compatible with the hardware and operating systems in use.
For now I want to focus on the perversity of things becoming more interesting than their owners. This may have to go in installments. I want to bring in the concepts of archaeology and forensics, and how this is more in line with sane direction of interest: Looking at material evidence in order to get at the humans.
But I fear I must pause now because the cormorant devouring minutes bid me turn attention to other matters before the tide envelopes the last stretch of beach and leaves me stranded. The grains in the glass, so the days of our lives?
I Dwell In Possibility 