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Comment by humanrebar | Hacker News Reader

On the contrary, that should be expected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

...now, we should figure out why the older stuff lasts longer. But it's inevitable that the older stuff is more durable. If it weren't, it wouldn't exist.

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In general, the things which survive are over-engineered. The wires are several guages larger than they need to be, there are backups for the backups, and the underlying technology (magnetism, switching) is hundreds of years old. In contrast, many of our electronics use components which are barely larger than they need to be (if at all), and rely on technology which is younger than a single generation.

Now then, we do still create technology which lasts - it's just not as frequently found in consumer tech. Take stoplight timing switches as an example. They use electronics, and work in some incredibly extreme environments, and are reliable more often than not.

Exactly it was only 15 or so years ago that one electrical firm local to me stopped producing knife switches - thats the big switches (steam punk style) you see in Frankensteins lab film sets.

Its the fact that it tended to be built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

And survivorship bias cant really be used for a tube line as opposed to a widget off of a production line.

A tube line is a one off custom system.

The tube line is a custom one-off system. The components aren't though.

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