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The Ampex Sign Is Coming Down (fastcompany.com)
harrymcc writes: If you ever watched anything on videotape, you have Silicon Valley pioneer Ampex -- which invented the technology -- to thank. And for years, the company's vintage sign has stood alongside Highway 101 as a tribute to its historical significance. But Stanford University, which owns the land the sign sits on, is in the process of dismantling it -- an act which Redwood City could have prevented but didn't. I wrote about this dismaying example of cultural shortsightedness at Fast Company.
The reason these things haven't advanced much is because they don't need to. Microphones have been able to capture sounds in a wider spectrum than our ears can hear, with better dynamics response too for a long time now. There is no point in recording any better because you cant hear the difference. Same for speakers, headphones, the recording media itself. A CD could already play back sounds outside of the human range of hearing back in the 80's. You don't need a better microphone.
The same applies for lenses. You can't beat physics. There is a reason Hubble and spy satellites have such massive mirrors and lenses in them. Because if you want the crazy resolution you have to get really big. No way around it. Camera lenses haven't really improved all that much since post war for the same reason. Coatings have but not the glass. If you want more then you have to get a bigger lens and that's just how it works. Its easy to find professional photographs from the 50's on that looks just as good as any modern DSLR. The only thing that has really changed is convenience with going digital so you don't have to carry around a bunch a film rolls and wait until its developed to know if you took any worthwhile pictures.
If we are talking about any physical medium, audio, video, still photography etc. There is a plateau in performance where you dont need to improve any more. And that plateau is how close can we get to matching the human senses? Once we have a TV that can play back video at a resolution our eyes cant discern from real, at a frame rate we can't discern from real, with a contrast ratio and color spectrum that does the same. Then there is no point in making better TVs except in getting the cost down, making it smaller, etc. Its going to be interesting with 3D graphics get to that level where the visual in a video game are indistinguishable from real life. You still have the whole problem of the interface to the game preventing perfect immersion, but who knows. Maybe by that point we will have come up with Matrix style stabby usb plugs for your head where the same is beamed right into your brain.