Few Things To Talk About
First we design systems, and then the systems design us. Because memory or imagination for us takes precedence over observation, we forget about things designed long ago. I imagine there to be a lot and lot of such systems, locally everywhere, as well as globally. Here are a few which I can recall bothering me every now and then:
- AD and BC date systems: We are living in the 21st century today, that's so cool! But what does that mean?
- The Mercator map: Thanks to Donald Trump going after Greenland, many people got to know Greenland is smaller than the USA (actually 1/4th the size). However, the real culprit remains undercover - the Mercator map.
- The QWERTY keyboard: The layout designed for mechanical typewriters in 1870s, still used in tandem with touch screens 150 years later.