Bruce Sterling DEAD MEDIA

Media turns into trash. This is an unusual topic, but one that, I think, has a very bright future. By now, we are used to the idea of "new media." We have been living in a glamorous, frenetic media revolution for
twenty years now. 

Here in the G-7 countries, we frolic in many new forms of entertainment, delivered in ever-more-sophisticated packages. We are at ease with new, information-rich ways to arrange our work lives, our corporate structures, our buying habits, our politics. 

But in fact, we live in the Golden Age of Dead Media. We are creating and killing media faster than they have ever been created and killed before. Whole channels of communication are vanishing before our eyes: 8-track tape, punchcards, Morse code, manual typewriters, laser disks, and, especially, dozens and dozens of species of computers.

When the channel goes, the data becomes trash. The more our lives become saturated with media, the easier it is to lose track of information. Governments give up paper records, rely on computers -- and then the tapes decay and become unreadable. People routinely fill personal computers with an incredible wealth of information, and then pitch them out the door. If a thief steals our computer we cry; when obsolescence steals our computer, we just buy another computer. We've entered a world where traditional "culture" is replaced by a highly mediated culture industry. "Art" and "knowledge" have become "images" and "information," digital commodities which are easy to move, reproduce and sell. The culture industry is rooted in media, and based on planned obsolescence.

After fifty years of computing machinery, there is still no secure, official archive for digital information. Our society depends on ones and zeros, but we don't know how to store them. There is no safe place where we can store any of our vast wealth of computer data with any assurance that we can read that data in twenty years -- or even in ten years. Paper and ink will sit still on a shelf -- but digital information can't, won't, and doesn't. Digital information very swiftly becomes trash.

Computers don't just go out-of-date -- they rot like garbage. A computer program displaying "content" to the "user" is a fragile, super-elaborate, system. Computer data can crack and fall apart in half-a-dozen different fatal ways. The basic storage medium can change: the program may have the misfortune to be written on magnetic reel-to-reel tape, for instance. The basic ones and zeros may still be readable, but the machine language may become obsolete. Or, the operating system may have changed beyond recognition. Or (still another level up) the application may no longer agree with the operating system. Or the display system may no longer agree with the screen display.

These only seem like arcane, geekish problems. Now that computers are common personal appliances, these are personal problems. In a computerized society, these problems are an open scandal. Our computers are created with amnesia built-in as a feature. Our data archives are becoming data mausoleums, vast garbage dumps. The faster computers advance, the worse the problem gets.

Electronic art, electronic commerce, electronic government, electronic culture: they are all temporary. They are all one tick of the clock away from rubbish. Information wants to be trash.

Worse yet, we *profit* by making digital culture into trash. We sell ourselves our own memories, over and over, so that we may buy the very same pop song on a 45, an eight-track, on vinyl, on CD, and on MP3. Our economy is hooked on dead media. 

The much-praised World Wide Web has unique and unappreciated "dead media" problems. The Web itself is very tough, resilient, and hard to kill -- and so is the stuff placed on the Web. That's not just a feature -- it's a bug. It's easy to put valuable data into the World Wide Web -- but it's very hard to erase the trash. 

It's cheap to upload things, but it is expensive to get rid of what's worthless. The World Wide Web has never invented a way to take out the trash; it has no garbage trucks, it has no sewer system. So year by year, more and more of the Web's content is dead information. Long-dead discussions, long-dead personal websites, and the dead clutter of bankrupt companies that shut down their web business, but never took the trouble and expense to unplug. These are the Web's "ghost sites." 

No one has permission to get rid of the trash on the Web. It's hard to imagine how anyone could get such permission. The World Wide Web was built without a "trash" icon. So the dead junk just builds up and up. 

As time passes, these legacy issues mount up steadily. Like most revolutions, the computer revolution has been a hasty, headlong thing. We will pay a price for our shortsightedness and our neglect of the long-term view. The Y2K problem is a fine example of this, but it's only the beginning.

In Dead Media Project, we study media from the bottom-side up. We begin at the junkyard, and advance from there. That's how we unearth and discover incredible media monsters such as Thaddeus Cahill's "Teleharmonium." The Cahill Teleharmonium was one of the world's first music synthesizers. It was created to play electronic organ music over telephone networks -- back in the 1890s.

This Cahill machine weighed about ten tons. It was the state of the art for its time. This super-gizmo was a high-tech network start-up that attracted much press interest, investment, and admiring techno-speculation. One hundred years later, the Cahill Teleharmonium is one of the most absurd and bizarre things you could possibly imagine.

Cities all over the world -- Saint Petersburg, for instance -- have the traces of dead optical networks. These "telegraph hills" have nothing to do with Morse Code and the electrical telegraph. They are remnants of Claude Chappe's *semaphore telegraph* -- a hilltop windmill-like station with huge, waving wooden arms. On a clear day, these hilltop telegraphs could send messages across the length and breadth of France in a matter of hours. Chappe systems (the world's earliest "telecommunication networks") were once installed in countries all over the world, including Russia. The very last one died in South America in 1912.

But why should I offer theory? Look at the evidence. Media dies, that's my point. Look at it. Look at all this historical media that is trash now.

This is from the Dead Media Project's "Master List of Dead Media." 

DEAD OPTICAL NETWORKS

Roman light telegraph; 
Polybius's torch telegraph ca 150 BC
Moundbuilder Indian signal mounds
Babylonian fire beacons
Fire signals on the Great Wall of China
Viking fire-signal towers in Ireland

Amontons' windmill signals (1690)

OPTICAL TELEGRAPHY: 
Johannes Trithemius's Steganographia (ca 1500?)
Dupuis-Fortin optical telegraph (France 1788)
Chappe's "Synchronized System" and "Panel Telegraph" 
(France 1793)
Claude Chappe's French Optical Telegraph (France 1793)
The Vigigraph (France 1794)
Edelcrantz's Swedish Optical Telegraph (1795)
British Admiralty Optical Telegraph (1795)
Bergstrasser's German Optical Telegraph (1786)
Chudy's Czech Optical Telegraph (the Fernschreibmaschine) 
(1796)
Van Woensel's Dutch system (1798)
Fisker's Danish Optical Telegraph (1801)
Grout's American Optical Telegraph (1801)
Olsen's Norwegian Optical Telegraph (1808)
Abraham Chappe's Mobile Optical Telegraph (1812)
Parker's American Optical Telegraph (ca 1820)
Curacao Optical Telegraph (1825-1917)
Watson's British Optical Telegraph (1827)
Australian Optical Telegraph (Watson system) (1827)
Lipken's Dutch system (1831)
O'Etzel's German Optical Telegraph (1835)
Schmidt's German Optical Telegraph (1837)
Ferrier's optical telegraph (1831)
Russian Optical Telegraph (1839, Chappe system)
Spanish Optical Telegraph (ca 1846)
San Francisco Optical Telegraph (1849)
Ramstedt's Finnish Optical Telegraph (1854)

Heliography: 
The Mance Heliograph (Britain 1860s)
The heliostat, the heliotrope, the helioscope.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange heliograph.
The Babbage Occulting Telegraph (never built).
American World War II pilot-rescue signal mirrors.

Semaphore and flag signals:
Byzantine naval code (Byzantium AD 900), Admiralty Black 
Book code (England 1337), de la Bourdonnais code (France 
1738), de Bigot code (France 1763), Howe code (Britain 
1790), Popham code aka Trafalgar Code (Britain 1803, 1813)
US Army Myer Code semaphore (USA 1860).
Military balloon semaphore (France 1790s).

Early 20th Century electric searchlight spectacles.

DEAD ELECTRICAL TRANSFER NETWORKS

ELECTRICAL CURRENT TRANSFER
George Louis Lesage / Charles Morrison electric telegraph 
(1774) 
Francisco Salva's Madrid-Aranjuez electric telegraph 
(1796)
Soemmering's electrolytic bubble-letter telegraph (1812)
Henry's electromagnetic telegraph (1831)
Baron Schilling's Russian magnetized needle telegraph 
(1832)
Gauss/Weber mirror galvanometer telegraph (1833)

CODED ELECTRICAL TRANSFER

Samuel Morse telegraph (patented 1837)
Karl August Steinhill paper ribbon telegraph (1837)
Charles Wheatstone / William Fothergill Cooke Five-Needle 
Telegraph (1837)
The Alphabetical Telegraph
Foy-Breguet Chappe-code Electrical Telegraph
The Bain Chemical Telegraph (1848)
Alexander Bain automatic perforated-tape transmitters 
(1864).

Specialized telegraphic fire alarms, burglar alarms, 
railroad-signalling systems, hotel annunciators, etc.

Telex.

CODED ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF IMAGES

Elisha Gray's telautograph (1886); the telescriber.

The Vail telegraphic printer (1837), the House telegraphic 
printer (1846), the Hughes telegraphic printer (1856), 
the Phelps telegraphic printer (1859)
Frederick Bakewell's Fac Simile telegraph (1848)
Giovanni Caselli's fascimile pantelegraph (Paris-Lyon 
1865-1870); Ernest Hummel's Telediagraph (1895),
Arthur Korn's telephotography (1907), 
Edouard Belin's Belinograph (1913), 
Alexander Muirhead's 1947 fax.


ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF SOUND

Unorthodox telephony networks and devices:
The Bliss toy telephone (1886), Telefon Hirmondo,
Cahill's Telharmonium (1895), Bell's photophone, 
the Telephone Herald of Newark, Electrophone Ltd. wire
broadcast

Telephonic Jukeboxes: The Shyvers Multiphone,
the Phonette Melody Lane, the AMI Automatic 
Hostess, the Rock-Ola Mystic Music System 

ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF SOUND AND IMAGE

(Dead Telephony)
The AT&T Nipkow disk picturephone (1927), 
Gunter Krawinkel's video telephone booth
(Germany 1929), Reichspost picturephone (Germany 1936),
AT&T Picturephone, AT&T Videophone 2500, etc

(Dead Mechanical Television)
Baird Television; Baird Noctovision; Baird Telelogoscopy; 
The General Electric Octagon; the Daven Tri-Standard 
Scanning Disc; the Jenkins W1IM Radiovisor Kit,
the Jenkins Model 202 Radiovisor, Jenkins Radio Movies; 
the Baird Televisor Plessey Model, the Baird Televisor 
Kit; the Western Television Corporation Visionette

(Dead Color Television Formats):
Baird Telechrome, HDTV, PALplus letterbox format, etc.

(Dead Interactive Television)
Zenith Phonevision, the first pay-per-view TV service 
(1951).
Cableshop

AT&T wirephoto (1925) 

DEAD DIGITAL NETWORKS

Teletext, Viewtron, Viewdata, Prestel, The Source, Qube, 
Alex (Quebec), Telidon (Canada), Viatel and Discovery 40 
(Australia), the ICL One-Per-Desk, etc.

Dead bulletin board system networks:
RIME, ILink, FrEdMail, OneNet, SmartNet, InfoLink, 
WWIVnet,
NorthAmeriNet, etc.

TRANSFERS BY ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION

(Dead Television) 
Nipkow disk (1884), Zworykin 
iconoscope (1923), Farnsworth Dissector.
Hugo Gernsback's Nipkow television broadcasts (1928)

(Microwaves)
Microwave relay drone aircraft (Canada 1990s)

(Radio)
RCA radiophoto (1926)

(Electrical induction)

Smith's railway induction telegraph (1881),
the Edison induction telegraph (1888)

DEAD INK-BASED MEDIA 

(dead text production devices and systems)

Typewriters: Henry Mill's device (1714)
Pingeron's machine for the blind (1780),
Burt's Family Letter Press (1829), Xavier Progin's 
"Machine Kryptographique" (1833), Guiseppe Ravizza's
"Cembalo-Scrivano" (1837), Charles Thurber's
"Chirographer" (1843), Sir Charles Wheatstone's 
telegraphic printers (1850s), J B. Fairbanks' 
"Phonetic Writer and Calico Printer," 
Giuseppe Devincenzi's electric writing machine (1855),
the Beach Typewriter for the Blind (1856),
Edison electric typewriter (1872),
Bartholomew's Stenograph (1879)
Schulz Auto-typist punch-paper copier typewriter (1927) 
Weir's pneumatic typewriter (1891),
the Blickensderfer rotary wheel typewriter (1892),
the Elliott & Hatch Book Typewriter (1895?)
Juan Gualberto Holguin's 'Burbra' pneumatic typewriter 
(1914), the IBM Selectric, etc. 

Dead copying devices:
James Watt's ink copier (1780)
The aniline dye copy press
The hektograph
Edison's Electric Pen stencil (1876), the Edison pneumatic 
pen stencil, the Edison foot-powered pen stencil, the 
Music Ruling pen stencil, the Reed pen stencil
Zuccato's Trypograph (1877)
Gestetner's Cyclostyle (1881)
The Edison Mimeograph (1887) 
The Gammeter, aka Multigraph (circa 1900)
The Vari-Typer

Chinese imperial court printed newspaper (circa 618 AD);
Beijing city printed newspaper (748 AD)
Bi Sheng's clay movable type (1041 AD)

DEAD SOUND-CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Extinct forms of dictation machine:
the Ediphone, the SoundScriber, etc. 
Poulsen's telegraphon wire recorder (1893)
The Wilcox-Gay Coin Recordio (1950?)
Timex Magnetic Disk Recorder (1954)

DEAD SOUND ARCHIVAL TECHNIQUES

Extinct phonographic formats: Leon Scott de Martinville
phono-autograph (1857), Edison tinfoil cylinder (1877),
Edison wax cylinder, the Bettini Micro-Phonograph, the 
telegraphone, Bell's graphophone (1886), The Columbia 
Graphophone Grand, the Edison Concert Grand Phonograph, 
the Pathe' Salon cylinder, the Edison Blue Amberol 
cylinder, the Edison vertical-groove disc phonograph, 
the Michaelis Neophone.
Extinct wire recorders, 78 rpm vinyl, 8-track tape, 2-
track Playtape, the Elcaset, Soviet "bone music," aluminum 
transcription disks, etc.

Mechanical music machines:
the Organetta, Organette, Aurephone, 
Cecilla, Organina Cabineto, Tournaphone, Cabinetto, 
Melodia, Musical Casket, Gately Automatic Organ,
Tanzbar, Seraphone, Celestina, etc.

DEAD SOUND REPRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES:
The AT&T Voder (1939)
The Bell Labs Vocoder
Talking dolls and cassette dolls
(von Kempelen's "talking" doll (1778), Robertson's
talking waxwork (1815), Faber's Euphonia (1853),
Teddy Ruxpin, dolls linked to television programs, 
realistic sound-producing squeeze toys, etc).

DEAD STILL-IMAGE CAPTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Extinct photographic techniques: Niepce's asphalt 
photograph (1826), daguerrotype (1839), calotype (1841),
talbotype, collodion process (1851), fluorotype, 
cyanotype, Pellet process, ferro-gallic and ferro-tannic 
papers, albumen process, argenotype, kalliotype, 
palladiotype, platinotype (1873), uranium printing, 
powder processes, pigment printing, Artigue process, oil 
printing, chromotype, Herschel's breath printing, 
diazotype, pinatype, wothlytype, etc.

DEAD STILL-IMAGE TO TACTILE IMAGE TECHNOLOGY

Naumburg's printing visagraph and automatic visagraph.

DEAD STILL-IMAGE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES

The stereopticon, the Protean View, the Zogroscope, the 
Polyorama Panoptique, Frith's Cosmoscope, Knight's 
Cosmorama, Ponti's Megalethoscope (1862), Rousell's 
Graphoscope (1864), Wheatstone's stereoscope (1832), dead 
Viewmaster knockoffs.

Medieval and renaissance magic-glass conjuring.
Alhazen's camera obscura (1000 AD),
Wollaston's camera lucida (1807).
Magic lantern, dissolving views

Phantasmagoria: Robertson's Fantasmagorie, 
Seraphin's Ombres Chinoises, Guyot's smoke apparitions,
Philipstal's phantasmagoria, Lonsdale's 
Spectrographia, Meeson's phantasmagoria, the optical 
eidothaumata, the Capnophoric Phantoms, Moritz's 
phantasmagoria, Jack Bologna's Phantoscopia, Schirmer and 
Scholl's Ergascopia, De Berar's Optikali Illusio, 
Brewster's catadioptrical phantasmagoria, 
Pepper's Ghost, Messter's Kinoplastikon.

Biddall's Phantospectraghostodrama and similar
"fairground bogeys."

Riviere's Theatre d'Ombres (Paris 1887-1897).

DEAD STILL-IMAGE "3-D" WITH SOUND

The Talking View-Master.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION TECHNOLOGIES

Joseph Plateau's phenakistiscope (1832), Emile Reynaud's 
praxinoscope, Ayrton's thaumatrope or "magic disks" 
(1825), Stampfer's stroboscope, William George Horner's 
zoetrope or "wheel-of-life" (1834), L. S. Beale's 
choreutoscope (1866), the viviscope, Short's Filoscope, 
Herman Casler's mutoscope and the "picture parlor" (1895), 
the Lumiere Kinora viewer and Kinora camera, the 
fantascope, etc. 

Dead cinematic devices, including but not limited to:
Muybridge's zoogyroscope, E J Marey's chronophotographe 
and fusil photographique, George Demeny's Phonoscope, 
Edison kinetoscope (1893), Anschutz's Electro-
Tachyscope, Armat's vitascope, Rudge's biophantascope, 
Skladanowsky's Bioscope, Acre's kineopticon, the 
counterfivoscope, the klondikoscope, Paul's theatrograph, 
Reynaud's Theatre Optique, Reynaud's Musee Grevin Cabinet 
Fantastique, Lumiere cinematographe, Kobelkoff's Giant 
Cinematographe, Lumiere Cinematographe Geant (1900), the 
vitagraph, Paul's animatograph, the vitamotograph, the 
Kinesetograph, Proszynski's Oko, the Urbanora, the Prague 
Laterna Magika.

The Sony Videomat coin-op video recorder booth (1966)

Abel Gance's Polyvision multiple-screen silent cinema.

The Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t'ai (Shanghai 1920s)

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND 
TECHNOLOGIES

the Photo-Cinema-Theatre sound film system (1900),
Gaumont's Chronophone (1910), Messter's Biophon (1904),
The Mendel-Walturdaw cinematophone (1911), The Jeapes-
Barker Cinephone (1908), Hepworth's Vivaphone (1911), 
Edison kinetophone (1913), Ruhmer's Photographon optical 
sound recorder (1901), the synchronoscope, the 
cameraphone, phonofilm, the graphophonoscope, 
the chronophotographoscope, the biophonograph, 
DeForest Phonofilm (1923), Warner Bros/ Western Electric 
Vitaphone (1926), Fox Movietone (1927), Vocafilm, 
Firnatone, Bristolphone, Titanifrone, Disney's Cinephone, 
Hoxie / RCA Photophone (1928), General Electric 
Kinegraphone (1925), Cinerama (1951), CinemaScope (1952),
Natural Vision (1952), Todd-AO, Super Panavision 70,
Ultra Panavision 70, etc.

The Scopitone.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, IMMERSIVE

Raoul Grimoin-Sanson's Ballon-Cineorama ten-projector 
circular screen (1900)

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL
Odorama, Smell-O-Vision (1960), Aromarama (1959) etc.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL, 
IMMERSIVE
Morton Heilig's Sensorama.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, "3-D"

Devignes's stereoscopic zoetrope (1860)
Stereoscopic phenakistoscopes: Seller's Kinematoscope 
(1861), Shaw's stereoscopic phenakistiscope (1860)
Bonelli and Cook's microphotograph stereo-phenakistiscope 
(1863), Wheatstone's stereoscopic viewer (c. 1870) 

3-D projection systems: d'Almeida's projected 3-D magic 
lantern slides (1856), Heyl's Phasmatrope (1870),
Grivolas's stereoscopic moving pictures (1897),
the Fairall anaglyph process (1922), 
Kelly's Plasticon (1922), Ives and Leventhall's 
Plastigram, aka Pathe Stereoscopiks, aka Audioscopiks, aka 
Metroscopix (1923,1925, 1935, 1953), Teleview (New York 
1922), polarized light stereoscopic movies (1936), 
Ivanov's parallax stereogram projector (Moscow 1941), 
Savoy's Cyclostereoscope (Paris 1949), the Telekinema 
(London 1951), Space Vision (Chicago 1966).

VisiDep 3-D Television

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, 
ARCHIVAL

Dead video: Baird Phonovisor wax videodisk 
(1927), Ives/Bell Labs Half-Tone Television (1930s)
Eidophor video projector (1945), 
Westinghouse Phonovid vinyl video (1965), PixelVision, 
Polavision, Philips Laservision videodisk, Panasonic HDTV 
(1974), McDonnell Douglas Laserfilm Videodisc (1984),
analog HDTV (1989), RCA SelectaVision CED videodisk,
Telefunken Teldec Decca TeD videodisk, TEAC system 
videodisk, Philips JVC VHD/AHD videodisk 

Dead videotapes: Ampex Signature I (1963), 
Sony CV B/W (1965), Akai 1/4 inch B/W & Colour (1969), 
Cartivision/Sears (1972)
Sony U-Matic (197?), Sony-Matic 1/2" B/W (197?)
EIAJ-1 1/2" (197?), RCA Selectavision Magtape (1973)
Akai VT-100 1/4 inch portable (1974), 
Panasonic Omnivision I (1975),
Philips "VCR" (197?), Sanyo V-Cord, V-Cord II (197?)
Akai VT-120 (1976), Matsushita/Quasar VX (1976)
Philips & Grundig Video 2000 (1979), 
Funai/Technicolor CVC (1984)
Sony Betamax

DEAD VIRTUALITIES

Physical display environments (non-immersive):
Dioramas (no sound), de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon 
(sound and lighting) (1781), the Stereorama, the 
Cosmoramic Stereoscope. 

Mechanical drama:
Japanese karakuri puppet theatre 
Heron's Nauplius.
Dead thrill rides.

Immersive physical display environments
Panoramas, Poole's Myriorama, the Octorama, the 
Diaphorama, Cycloramas, the Paris Mareorama (1900).

Defunct digital VR systems. 

DEAD DATA-RETRIEVAL DEVICES AND SYSTEMS

accountant tally sticks
Card catalogs: The Indecks Information Retrieval System, 
Diebold Cardineer rotary files, etc.

Peek-a-Boo Index Cards: Aspect Cards, 
Optical Coincidence Cards, and Batten Cards; 
Keydex, Termatrex, Minimatrex, Omnidex, Findex, 
Selecto, Sphinxo, Sichtlochkarten, Ekaha, Vicref,
Find-It, Brisch-Vistem and Trio Index Cards.

Polish Index Card Cryptography.

Microfiche cards: Microcite Microfiche Index Cards; 
Jonkers' Minimatrex Microfiche Index Cards

Vannevar Bush's Comparator and Rapid Selector
Scott's Electronium music composition system


DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (MECHANICAL)

Extinct computational platforms:

abacus (circa 500BC Egypt, still in wide use) 
saun-pan computing tray (200 AD China)
soroban computing tray (200 AD Japan)
Napier's bones (1617 Scotland),
William Oughtred's slide rule (1622 England)
and other slide rules,
Wilhelm Schickard's calculator (1623 ?)
Blaise Pascal's calculating machine (1642 France)
Schott's Organum Mathematicum (1666)
Gottfried Liebniz's calculating machine (1673)
Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (built 1990s) (1822 
England)
Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (never built) (1833 
England)
Scheutz mechanical calculator (1855 Sweden)
The Thomas Arithmometer 
Hollerith tabulating machine (1890)

DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC, ANALOG)

Vannevar Bush differential analyzer (1925 USA)

DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (DIGITAL)

The Cauzin Strip Reader (archival)

Extinct game platforms:
The Video Brain (1975?) Fairchild/Zircon "Channel F" 
(1976), Bally Astrocade (1977), RCA Studio II (1977), 
Emerson Arcadia (1978), Imagination Machine (1980), 
ColecoVision (1982), Entex Adventurevision (1982),
Zircon Channel F II (1982), Mattel Aquarius (1983), 
Ultravision Arcade System (1983), Nintendo Famicon (1983), 
Nintendo Entertainment System (1985), Sega Master System 
(1986) Konix Multi-System (1989), NEC Turbo-Grafx 16 
(1988), Actionmax Video System, Adam Computer System, 
Atari: 2600/5200/7800, GCE Vectrex Arcade System, 
Intellivision I/II/III, (aka Tandyvision One, Mattel 
Entertainment Computer System, Super Video Arcade, INTV 
System III/IV, Super Pro System) Odyssey, Commodore, APF, 
Spectravision, Tomy Tutor, etc.

DEAD BINARY DIGITAL COMPUTERS

Konrad Zuse's Z1 computer (1931 Germany)
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1939 USA)
Turing's Colossus Mark 1 (1941 England)
Zuse's Z3 computer (1941 Germany)
Colossus Mark II (1944 England)
IBM ASCC Mark I (1944 USA)
BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) (1946-1949 USA)
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) 
(1946 USA)

Dead mainframes.

Dead personal computers:

Altair 8800, Amiga 500, Amiga 1000, Amstrad
Apple I, II, II+, IIc, IIe, IIGS, III
Apple Lisa, Apple Lisa MacXL, Apricot
Atari 400 and 800 XL, XE, ST,
Atari 800XL, Atari 1200XL, Atari XE
Basis 190, BBC Micro, Bondwell 2, Cambridge Z-88
Canon Cat, Columbia Portable
Commodore C64, Commodore Vic-20, Commodore Plus 4
Commodore Pet, Commodore 128 CompuPro "Big 16," 
Cromemco Z-2D, Cromemco Dazzler,
Cromemco System 3, DEC Rainbow, DOT Portable, Eagle II
Dragon System Dragon 32 and Dragon 64
Epson QX-10, Epson HX-20, Epson PX-8 Geneva
Exidy Sorcerer, Franklin Ace 500, Franklin Ace 1200
Fujitsu Bubcom 80,
Gavilan, Grid Compass, Heath/Zenith, Hitachi Peach
Hyperion, IBM PC 640K, IBM XT, IBM Portable
IBM PCjr, IMSAI 8080, Intelligent Systems Compucolor
and Intecolor, Intertek Superbrain II
Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1, Kaypro 2x
Linus WriteTop, Mac 128, 512, 512KE
Mattel Aquarius, Micro-Professor MPF-II
Morrow MicroDecision 3, Morrow Portable
NEC PC-8081, NEC Starlet 8401-LS,
NEC 8201A Portable, NEC 8401A,
NorthStar Advantage, NorthStar Horizon
Ohio Scientific, Oric, Osborne 1, Osborne Executive
Panasonic, Sanyo 1255, Sanyo PC 1250
Sinclair ZX-80, Sinclair ZX-81, Sinclair Spectrum
Sol Model 20, Sony SMC-70, Spectravideo SV-328
Tandy 1000, Tandy 1000SL, Tandy Coco 1, Tandy Coco 2
Tandy Coco 3, TRS-80 models I, II, III, IV, 100,
Tano Dragon, TI 99/4, Timex/Sinclair 1000
Timex/Sinclair color computer, 
TRW/Fujitsu 3450, Vector 4
Victor 9000, Workslate
Xerox 820 II, Xerox Alto, Xerox Dorado, Xerox 1108
Yamaha CX5M
etc. etc. etc.

Dead Personal Digital Assistants.
Apple Newton.


Dead computer languages.
Fortran I, II and III, ALGOL 58 and 60, Lisp 1 and 1.5
APT, JOVIAL, SIMULA I and 67
JOSS, SNOBOL, APL

Dead operating systems.
CP/M, CP/M-86
DEC RSTS/E
Fujitsu E-35
GO Penpoint
Sharp FDOS
MSX
PrimeOS
TRSDOS
ATARIDOS
Newton OS

Dead Internet techniques.
gopher
WAIS

Steward Brand (author of THE MEDIA LAB and co-founder of Whole Earth
Catalogue) once said that confronting this Dead Media list was like
discovering the elephant's graveyard. I think he's right; it is an
illuminating shock. But while it's fun to kick the bones and pile up the
ivory, the real challenge is to know and understand the elephant and his
ways; the nature of his life and death; what this means, how it feels, and
what it signifies for what comes next.