I mean if you really want to defend steel, celebrate it, be my guest. But materials research and design for product development is a really cool area of focus and quite a different direction from what you are talking about. Especially in that we just don't know--it's not about the past, it's about the future. I hope to see it more with things like knives and tools.
Hm... I don't think you're reading closely. The point is not whether I already know (IOW the properties of my subjective past are not needed). The point is that there are definitely possible future outcomes that I do not know. Can you see why that might be helpful in thinking about the future of technology?
> IOW the properties of my subjective past are not needed
Your website in your profile already establishes that you're a professional bullshitter[1], so I don't think we need to dwell on that.
Even so, things of value can grow in manure. Do you actually have anything concrete to say or is it just handwaving all the way down? What's a superior alternative to steel for the general knife use cases? Maybe nanocarbon-quantumfiber?
From this passionate reply it sounds like your feelings have been hurt, 100%. But is it really fair to expect me to read a 20 page pdf on the strength of some rhetorical hand-wave? You could just say it: The unknown makes you uncomfortable. Do you think everything that was invented was just a cheap copy of what we had in the past? The logic here is underwhelming. The strange emotion is also unimpressive.
Anger and name calling, not returning to the topic as invited. Got it, you've written yourself a covert contract in which it's OK to be unfair, so I'm done here. And please stop letting PDFs do your thinking for you.
