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Comment by ianai | Hacker News Reader

I don't really feel too emotionally tied to this as a museum piece. A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something. This is more of an engineering prototype. It's very interesting as a technical specimen. But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture.

Having said that, total nerd out. I wish I had that level of technical chop.

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Being a consumer product and a museum (art) piece is not mutually exclusive. Lot of classical music and classical paintings were commissioned with a price to be "consumed".

> But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture.

Why not? While that particular hardware on its own might not explain the culture but knowing what people consumed as an entertainment and what people tried to invent for entertainment seems like a important thing to know to understand a culture. (This logic can be applied to classical music/painting)

>"A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something." //

Marcel Duchamp wants a word with you about a fountain.

Doesn't this have some relevance to nintendo and sony and their history. I feel like sony wouldn't be where it is right now without that partnership gone bad.

It has a ton of history in that context. But ultimately history is concerned about larger swaths of people than the design choices of two firms.

The Mona Lisa is a painting by one person of another person at the behest of another person. That's a total of probably three people directly concerned, and it was most likely a commercial transaction. A piece's relevance doesn't come from how many people were involved in its creation or intended use, or whether it was meant to make the creator money.

Sure, but the Mona Lisa gained notoriety for other reasons.

My point with these comments isn't to exactly win people over to this idea. This is an idea I felt like 'fleshing out' with a conversation on HN. I'm not entirely sold on it myself. I can't shake this feeling that not every engineering example needs to be preserved for the ages.

Sure, but insofar as the video game industry is an interesting cultural topic for our age (which I think it is), Nintendo and Sony are probably the most important players in its history, and this prototype represents a pivotal moment for both of them.

Most museum art pieces were consumer items for the rich. How many Old Master paintings are the Louvre or the Met are NOT commission paintings for a wealthy aristocrat or church?

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