Month: March 2026

More surprising than the planned obsolescence of analog TV was the planned obsolescence of the light bulb. The light bulb? Yes, the incandescent light bulb. Invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, light bulb technology remained essentially unchanged for over a century. Fluorescent lighting became popular in businesses, but households continued to use Edison’s technology well…

Many technologies are left behind as an accidental side-effect of the adoption of newer technologies. For instance the decline of the post office. Or “video killed the radio star.“ But some technologies are left behind intentionally, often with a very complex planning cycle to do so. In the 1990s it became clear that there was…