There's a beautiful lecture given by Prof. Richard Buckland of NSW where he talks, in a Douglas Adams kinda way, about the near infinite improbability of the CD

There's a beautiful lecture given by Prof. Richard Buckland of NSW where he talks, in a Douglas Adams kinda way, about the near infinite improbability of the CD player ever playing the first CDs people bought. If you ever need an account of a supernova of industry growth built on deep, deep interoperability worked out by the cleverest bastards all around the world, the is a jolly good one.