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I wonder if they’re all worth saving. I got quite adept at Black and white photo processing and printing. It’s a skill, but better (though slightly different

I wonder if they’re all worth saving. I got quite adept at Black and white photo processing and printing. It’s a skill, but better (though slightly different looking) results are yielded with a digital camera and computer. So I’ve kinda accepted that skill can go away and the world will be ok.

dfxm12 4y ago
Even though we have incendiary weapons, steel and building materials that work for us today, people still wonder about how to make things like Greek fire, Damascus/Wootz steel or Roman concrete. Even if we have better techniques, I do think it's a worthy academic endeavor to at least properly document stuff like this for posterity. If not, someone hundreds of years down the line will look at a painting of a sailboat and might go crazy trying to figure out how to make the sails or something. :) Also, knowing how to make a glass eye might somehow some way help in some other application where you have to make something out of glass in that particular shape. Or, it might just be fun to try your hand at it :)
- BizarroLand 4y ago
  Aside from that, knowledge doesn't exist in silos. The silos are our creation to help us sort out the nigh-infinite breadth of knowledge available to us. There's no telling if sievemaking might incidentally tie into a currently undiscovered mathematical formula that relates to the internal structure of a helpful molecule. Nonchalantly allowing knowledge to die out universally simply because it doesn't benefit you directly now sets a dangerous precedent for the future and potentially closes doors to humanity's potential.
  - Qem 4y ago
    > There's no telling if sievemaking might incidentally tie into a currently undiscovered mathematical formula that relates to the internal structure of a helpful molecule. That reminds me of reading somewhere that, during the Apollo program, the engineers couldn't come with a good design for the knee joint of the spacesuit themselves. So they ended copying the design of some preserved medieval armor made hundreds of years ago, and it worked fine.
mikewarot 4y ago
Those skills and technology are useful as photolithography. Which has several downstream technologies.

dfxm12 4y ago

Even though we have incendiary weapons, steel and building materials that work for us today, people still wonder about how to make things like Greek fire, Damascus/Wootz steel or Roman concrete. Even if we have better techniques, I do think it's a worthy academic endeavor to at least properly document stuff like this for posterity. If not, someone hundreds of years down the line will look at a painting of a sailboat and might go crazy trying to figure out how to make the sails or something. :) Also, knowing how to make a glass eye might somehow some way help in some other application where you have to make something out of glass in that particular shape. Or, it might just be fun to try your hand at it :)

BizarroLand 4y ago
Aside from that, knowledge doesn't exist in silos. The silos are our creation to help us sort out the nigh-infinite breadth of knowledge available to us. There's no telling if sievemaking might incidentally tie into a currently undiscovered mathematical formula that relates to the internal structure of a helpful molecule. Nonchalantly allowing knowledge to die out universally simply because it doesn't benefit you directly now sets a dangerous precedent for the future and potentially closes doors to humanity's potential.
- Qem 4y ago
  > There's no telling if sievemaking might incidentally tie into a currently undiscovered mathematical formula that relates to the internal structure of a helpful molecule. That reminds me of reading somewhere that, during the Apollo program, the engineers couldn't come with a good design for the knee joint of the spacesuit themselves. So they ended copying the design of some preserved medieval armor made hundreds of years ago, and it worked fine.

mikewarot 4y ago

Those skills and technology are useful as photolithography. Which has several downstream technologies.