Today’s question of the day was, “What piece of obsolete technology would you like to see make a comeback?” Inspired by the conversation about 8-track tapes yesterday. I must admit I find that kind of thing pretty interesting. The whole process of technologies, media et cetera being replaced by new variations, possibly because during my lifetime I saw vinyl records largely supplanted by cassettes, then by CDs, with 8-tracks appearing and then disappearing.
The trouble with 8-tracks was that they were not particularly well suited for music. It was hard to fast forward or rewind and programs would often change in the middle of songs, cause a song to be interrupted in the middle by a gap and a click. It was very annoying. According to Wikipedia, 8-tracks peaked in the US in 1978 and declined thereafter due to the rise of the cassette.
The same thing happened with other technologies, particularly phones. At one time there was a landline in just about every home. Now there are very few. Almost everyone has a cell phone of some description, either a smartphone, a flip phone, or something of the kind. When I was in my early 20s in the 90s cellular phones were big, heavy, clumsy things that cost about a zillion dollars a minute.
Same thing with home entertainment. First there were VCRs, then there were laserdiscs, which kind of came and went. Then came DVDs, then BluRays. Now everything is digital. I have a box with 62 streaming channels and I can record anything I watch with the press of a button. It’s kind of amazing, and it makes me wonder what kind of technological wonders we’ll see in the next twenty years.
