Hello, Among information technologies that have completely vanished from use and been replaced with computer systems, many devices designed for bank operations may qualify, such as: - Anti-fraud machines like this Protectograph * - Mechanical check sorters, like the NCR machine we recently excavated from the backrooms of BNP Paribas. it is not only the machines which have disappeared, but also most of their functions, as the cheques themselves are gradually vanishing from the scene, as did clearing houses in the past decades. Best, Pierre Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Universite Paris-Sorbonne http://pups.paris-sorbonne.fr/pages/aff_livre.php?Id=838 http://www.koyre.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/mounier-kuhn_cv_anglais.pdf * Le 18 juin 13 à 17:39, Thomas Haigh a écrit :
Hello everyone,
Slate has an little interesting story, framed with the idea that “dead” technologies take a very long time to actually depart. Apparently the last telegram will soon be sent, as India is discontinuing the service as a result of widening losses.http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/17/death_of_the_telegraph_wo... . According to the original story http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0614/India-to-send-wo... the system was down to its last 998 workers and was handling only about 5,000 messages a day.
Of course, it’s only really with a service based technology that an actual date of death can be established. Something like a PC can just go into the attic and might one day come out again in working order. Even pneumatic tubes, a retro technology favorite, are still in use in some settings. Punched cards are still used in voting machines. Vacuum tubes are still used in expensive amplifiers. According to Wikipedia even semaphore flags are still “used during underway replenishment at sea.”
So, can anyone come up with another information technology that has definitively and verifiably vanished completely from use? Specific products don’t count.
Tom _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are athttp://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
