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I wish we could manufacture these things again. Preserving the ability to build obsolete machines is important.

• JackFr 2mo ago
  It's cool, no doubt, but why precisely is it important? I find the engineering that went into late steam locomotives fascinating and much more complex and scientifically designed than the casual observer notices. But building one would be very expensive and serve no other purpose than to delight some nerds (which is a fine result but unlikely to be worth the price.)
  • hulitu 2mo ago
    > But building one would be very expensive and serve no other purpose than to delight some nerds (which is a fine result but unlikely to be worth the price.) Better to waste RAM of bilions of people with Electron applications. Which also "serve no other purpose than to delight some nerds".
  • rbanffy 2mo ago
    It is important because it keeps knowledge fresh. When knowledge goes stale you can no longer make things, and evolutionary paths are restricted to variations of what exists at that time. You can miss global maxima because there is no easy path from where you are now, but there could be from where you were.