Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Best car I've driven (A.K.A. Old man rambling on Tuesday)

[Rick Lindsay (rolindsay]

A corollary to this thought is photography.  We can still view ancient tin-type 
photographs today - but will we be able to read CD-ROMs in 100 years?  Yes, the 
CD may still be viable but will there be hardware to read it?  Almost certainly 
not.  There are lots of proprietary-format NASA video tapes documenting 
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo but there is only ONE remaining, operable player for 
that media!  And that was 50 years ago.  Or witness magnetic audio tape; 
reel-to-reel, 4-track (yes, FOUR track, preceding 8-track), 8-track, cassette 
and music CDs.  Already solid-state memory and iPOD-like devices are making 
even the 100-year-shelf-life CD obsolete.  I predict that our personal 
photographic history will become the stuff of legends.

regards,

rick

> From: Michael James

> Most of your modern Automotive advances have been
> Electronic, not entirely mechanical - which, I predict, will
> all have a very-poor shelf-life.  Imagine trying to repair
> and source-parts for Ferrari's F1 paddleshift
> transmissions two decades from now - forget it.  Most
> electronic-assist machines will be inoperable in 20-30 years
> simply because automotive electronics do not age well, are
> disposable/proprietary in the eyes of OEM suppliers, and
> difficult if not outright impossible for shade-tree
> mechanics to reverse-engineer without a Masters in Computer
> Engineering.  Coupled with the dwindling talent pool if
> REAL automotive mechanics, and most of the newer cars will
> be forever parked when their ECUs and other electronic
> engine-management doo-dads fail.
>  
> M