Future Nostalgia

What will AI make us nostalgic for?

Will there come a day when you'll come across a 45 year-old Mac laptop on an antiques store shelf and pine for the days when you actually had to push buttons to create and communicate?

I don't listen to vinyl on a 45-year old stereo because I think it sounds better. Some records might, but at low volume, with old gear and old ears, it ain't about the quality.

It's aesthetics. This gear is beautiful in a way new gear isn't.

It's tactile. Flipping switches and turning knobs is pleasurable in a way that sliding a fingertip on glass isn't.

It's economical. I can go spend $100 at a local record shop and come home with 12 new albums.

(hang on, gotta flip the record. Huey Lewis and the News, Fore! if you were curious.)

It's simple. No DRM. No apps. No internet connection.

It's social. Like looking under hoods at car shows. Conversations about favorite gear and albums start around racks of used gear and records.

But mainly?

It's nostalgic.

This is the gear I lusted after as a 10 year old. You might have memorized batting averages, for me it was model numbers and watts per channel. I still remember the salesperson I used to pester for demos. Years later he became my boss.

Cars, cameras, tractors, tools, dinner plates - if you spend any time in antique stores it's clear that people will always get nostalgic over old things.

But today's old things are - with more or less effort in some cases - still usable.

So I wonder.

Will that future vintage Mac laptop still fire up and do anything?