Last week at the Institute for the Future's Technology Horizons conference, I listened to a terrific talk Kevin Kelly gave about technology as a kingdom of life and the future of the scientific method. He had a lot of great slides to illustrate his points, including this set show here. (Click on thumbnails for enlargement)
Kevin was curious to learn whether or not any technology ever truly goes extinct. So he took a page from a 19th century Montgomery Ward catalog, and then tried to find the same products today. It turned out that every single thing, from hand plows to corn shellers to lard presses, is still being made and sold today. This, Kevin pointed out, is different from living things, which become extinct over time.
