A New Era of the Old World is Coming

It is really quite amazing to think that after over fifty years, since man first landed on the Moon in 1969, mankind is due to make at least two return visits in 2023 (India) and in 2024 (USA).

And this got me thinking that maybe it is high time that, as well as moon landings, we should bring back other things from that analogue world we once lived in.

Call me old-fashioned, if you like, but I am unashamedly a lover of analogue over digital. I prefer vinyl records over CDs, they just have a warmth of tone far superior to their digital counterparts. And if you want any proof of that, vinyl records are making something of a comeback lately.

I also much prefer print over digital media. I know cutting down all of those trees to make paper for magazines and newspapers is not suitable for the environment. But there is something so pleasing, in a tactile way, when I want to read a good mag, newspaper or book. Again, the paper seems to have a certain warmth. What's more, I see a lot more clarity in print photography than I do on a cold, digital screen.

And talking of screens, nobody will ever convince me that any digital image can get anywhere near the beautiful warmth of cellular film. That is because, with film, light actually passes through cellulose acetate. The light passes through the material during filming, as well as during projection. The resulting image possesses a certain depth of clarity and definition unsurpassed by anything any digital instrument can produce.

To get a real feel of the visual brilliance of film, go and see an IMAX movie shot on 75mm film. I once went to the Bradford Museum of Film and Television where they have an IMAX cinema. For a start the screen is massive and all-enveloping, filling your vision right up to the very edges of your peripheral, visual cones. It is stunningly beautiful to see.

And I don't believe it is just me who feels this way. For example, I once met an old mariner who hated the new fangle, dangle digital instrumentation in ship boiler rooms. He had a very good reason beyond mere tradition too.

The old salt, like all of his ilk, was super pragmatic. The thing is, he told me, on a round temperature dial, with a section of the face of the instrument painted red, even from right across the other side of the boiler room, you can see graphically how close the danger area is. With a digital readout, you see the temperature in isolation from the whole and can easily forget how close to the danger zone you are. And you have to be right up close to see those digital pixels, as well.

And now, with Tesla leading the way in the coming of age of digital control in cars, we are seeing a driving experience which is being diminished by the domination of digital instrumentation. As a driver, I do not want to see a digital readout of my revs per minute or road speed. I want to see a needle climbing according to my tactile inputs into the machine. More to the point, like that old mariner, I want to see at a glance, how much speed has passed and how much more is to come. I want to see, how much the speed the car is doing, relates to how much is available in total.

It is a brave new world that we live in, but I don't think that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. I do believe that some things are more than well worthwhile keeping. So, by all means, invest in and develop new technology in science and engineering. However, we should protect that which works as well as it ever could. If it's not broken, why try to fix it?