Lamenting change

So familiar data storage devices will go the way of the typewriter. I remember in the mid '80s lamenting the fact that typewriters were destined for the scrapheap with the rise of computers. Surely we would still use typewriters occasionally? It seems we don't.
It's funny how things we have taken for granted as constants in this modern age are rapidly falling by the wayside. Two other examples are 35mm film and public telephones.
What is driving this exponential development in technology? Why is it that from the 1300s to the late 1700s there was virtually none? Today we talk of obsolescence in terms of months or weeks. Or days.
I think you can understand this process better by looking at a human being as a microcosm of it. We often consider things to be impossible and this alone prevents us from tackling them. Once someone takes the plunge and opens a particular door we see a corridor to other doors. They open to others and so on. The possibilities become endless.
Our forefathers considered many things to be impossible. "Trains can't travel faster than 30 mph because the human body is not built to withstand such speeds. People's heads will blow off." Once such self-imposed limitations are lifted, entire universes of unexplored possibilities are opened up. The more you explore, the more corridors you find and the more doors you have to open. It becomes exponential.
So don't lament the pace of technology. Embrace it, and use it as a model for your own life. Don't put up your own limitations. There are enough out there already.
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