I have every computing platform I've ever hacked on since 1978, sitting in my room in the form of a retro-computing collection - portions of which I have exhibited over the last few years, to the tune of a 40,000+ visitors.

As a systems analyst/programmer with 40+ years of experience, I have lived by the mantra that "technology doesn't get old - its users do", and that "every computer that was ever built is still just as useful as the very first moment it was ever powered on - all it needs is a user". These are radical maxims, its true - flying in the face of consumption culture - but it has resulted in another phenomenon, especially true now in the age of AI/ML: old computers can always become more useful through optimization.

A case in point, one of my favourite systems is the Oric-1/Atmos computer - an also-ran 8-bit system from the heigh days of personal computing, before the IBM PC took off. It is now possible, with AI/ML, to write extremely optimized software for this platform which really push its limits into new, creative territory.

As AI/ML make proton-/electron-basedknowledge less intangible, the actual atoms are useful again.

It is the physicality of the device, not the knowledge about it, which matters now.

I operate on an extremely elevated awareness of the idea of optimizing the bloat out of these older systems, using AI/ML tooling. Things are getting less and less sub-optimal, in the 'older technology hardware' department - we are able to really optimize software for these systems, now.

I think anyone with an interest in computing, should have a few retro computers in their collection - and they should be running modern software on it. Old computers do not die - their users do. There will always be a user for a computer, old or new. The distinction is entirely arbitrary, human.