Evolution at work!

OK, not really. If you've been keeping up with technology news, you already know that it appears the Blu-Ray has won the HD format wars here in the US.

The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD rivalry had all of the makings of the VHS/Betamax wars of the 70's. A superior and slightly more expensive format against a limited, but cheaper technology.

HD-DVD even had the backing of some industry heavies like Microsoft and Toshiba. It wasn't quite enough.

Back in the days before Darwin, there were a number of competing theories about how organisms changed over time. One of them was Lamarkism which basically states that a life form acquires the traits of it's parents. A blacksmiths sons will acquire his fathers strong arms. 

Lamarkism was a theory that attempted to explain observable phenomena. It was wrong, but it was a step in the right direction. It explained what we thought was happening, but it never successfully described the mechanism by which the changes were transferred to offspring.

We often draw analogies between the various sciences. Technology, unlike biology seems to be comparable to Lamarkian evolution. The best traits of the parents are passed on to their offspring. In this case, we understand what the mechanism of transference is. Engineers and designers.

This is why the "evolution" of modern airplanes is so rapid. In the case of the Betamax/VHS battle, VHS won because it was cheaper. Many pundits expected the same thing to happen this time.

Well the final nail in the coffin of HD-DVD is now in place. Toshiba, the main company endorsing HD-DVD has announced that they are no longer going to produce the drives.

I personally have been hoping since the start of the HD format wars that Blu-Ray would win, but I didn't know for sure. It's nice to see a superior technology selected on the basis of its merits instead of its price. :)