In theory, we are asymptotically approaching a stable set of programming languages - a constellation of local-optimums. When something comes along with a differ

In theory, we are asymptotically approaching a stable set of programming languages - a constellation of local-optimums. When something comes along with a different name and new syntax and cleans up some semantics, it's called a new language, but that's missing the point - the intent of the programming environment it provides remains similar. And then writing code in it is no real issue. What ties us down to old languages is the whole environment - it is Joe Armstrong's "to give a gorilla a banana you must pick up the entire jungle" run rife through our production systems. Because our code increasingly depends on globally-sourced libraries, we tend towards copying around the entire planet and so there are layers of accretion all over. And yet emulators do exist and run software successfully. The trick there is that they have a terrarium of sorts: a boundary that limits the ecosystem. The explosions that obsolete software tend to occur where a terrarium was not planned for by the original authors, rather continuous dependence on an evolving ecosystem was taken for granted.