4 ms·
I cant argue with you that some works are objectively better than others. Or that works in much older media are going to be much more culturally significant tha
by kenshi 9y ago
I cant argue with you that some works are objectively better than others. Or that works in much older media are going to be much more culturally significant than any app.
Personally I think the value of (some of) the older apps is how they are waypoints in the progression of software design, specifically for touch screen devices.
I view software as an evolving medium (the ultimate meta-medium), and as such think its worth preserving at least some of these artefacts for future study.
Perhaps this doesn't count as culture, but I think it's important.
- coldtea 9y agoI agree with you too, after all I'm a software developer myself (and I love my 80's Sierra DOS games). So, it's not like I don't believe that they have some value (ZX games or early iOS apps), but that I made my stand a little more black and white to get my point across. I don't believe most of it is culture to the sense that a book is, mostly because most of them are quite plain, derivate from numerous other apps for other platforms, and driven by basic commercial desires. And of course, a book can be a window in someones mind/thought/philosophy/etc, whereas an app is mostly a utilitarian endeavour (it's like we don't attach much cultural importance to past commercial products, e.g. old tv sets or old fridges or old typewriters -- we might like them as antiques, but that's mostly it). That said, there are also utilitarian reasons for us wanting software to keep existing in some form (to open old documents, etc).