Re: (ReacTor) Five SF Novels About Rediscovering Ancient Tech

On Mon, 13 May 2024 12:12:14 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

On Thu, 9 May 2024 16:01:15 -0400, William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
wrote:
>

I am currently being cooled by a fan which is several years older than
Voyager.  Admittedly not such advanced technology, but a mere household
item. And it is one of a pair.  Which leads me to wonder, just  how long
could simple machines work, if we actually built them with longevity in
mind?
>
Fans bought since then have rarely lasted more than five years.  I do
have a Honeywell which lasted eight and still could be fixed if I could
only open it up - or so I think.

>
Good question though I have a 3-position pole lamp in my living room
that was used in my parents' home some 50+ years ago that hasn't
required any work other than changing light bulbs (we're now using the
newer mini-fluorescents rather than the old incandescents but nothing
else is changed). I have a 30+ year old pair of lamps in my bed room.
>
No doubt others here have older gear than that.

I have a two-pole lamp that may be older than I am -- but only the
actual /lamp/ is original. The shade vanished on a move; the cord was
replaced because it wasn't long enough; the inline switch was replaced
a while back because the one I bought in the 80s died; and the sockets
that the bulbs screw into were replaced when I managed to break the
older ones.

So, like the car in /The World's End/, it is the same in one sense,
and yet not in another since almost everything has been replaced.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"