Classical Guitar by Training, Cloud Engineer by Accident

Aging Spruce and Software

The project of having my personal site show specific content depending on the sun's location? A bit of a wash. Technical difficulties make it overkill for any longevity. Static HTML it is. Replacing the sun's location is an oblique way of showing time elapsed, perhaps more symbolic than anything else.

The background color of my site is as close as I can get to the color of the top of my guitar. The German Spruce has changed in color; warmer in comparison to when I first played it in 2017. Time brings out more color in the wood as well as the sound. I had to go in knowing that it'd take a couple years before the guitar's true sound came out. This isn't to say that the guitar initially sounds horrible, it's just that needs time to become dryer and more resonant.

Just give it time. Imagine saying the same about software! As much as I try to compare software to the analog organic (digital gardens, etc.), there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to this quality of emergent properties. Well, maybe such emergent properties in the digital come in the guise of bugs, glitches, errors. Let me rephrase: positive, creative emergent properties. When the wood ages, it affects the look & sound of the guitar for the better. When software ages, what is changed for the better? Am I not seeing it? Are there examples of software doing this?

Imagine a world in which letting a software tool age augments its utility like time does to the tone of a guitar.