From Neil Postman:
Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological. … One significant change generates a total change. If you remove the caterpillars from a given habitat, you are not left with the same environment minus caterpillars: you have a new environment … In the year 1500, fifty years after the printing press was invented, we do not have old Europe plus the printing press. We had a different Europe. After television, the United States was not America plus television; television gave a new coloration to every political campaign, to every home, to every school, to every church, to every industry.
In the year 1493, one year after Columbus, we do not have Old Wolrd plus New World. We had a different Planet. Trying to paraphrase Charles C. Mann.
Thanks John. And a Happy 2012!
I wrote a post about programming languages from an evolutionary point of view, you can see it here: http://yoavrubin.blogspot.com/2011/05/clojure_20.html