AI Generated Image
RS-232 and other forms of grief
Nature • • science
Key Points:
- An alien visiting a loft in Buenos Aires for food discovers a drawer filled with obsolete and tangled cables, each representing a bygone era of technology and human optimism.
- The alien, accustomed to highly efficient and elegant technology, finds the collection of outdated connectors both baffling and profoundly wrong, likening them to relics of catastrophic thinking.
- Among the cables are various outdated connectors such as RS-232 serial, FireWire, MiniDisc optical cables, SCART adapters, and USB-A to USB-A cables, each preserved despite their obsolescence.
- The alien reflects on the human tendency to keep such items as a way of holding onto past identities and moments of significance, even when the devices they connected to are long gone.
- This moment of understanding highlights the emotional and nostalgic value humans assign to obsolete technology, contrasting sharply with the alien’s efficient worldview.
