Voyager 1 still works when last seasons "smart phone" doesn't.

Voyager 1 was built in 1977. Forty-eight years later, it’s still out there ... alone, cold, and 24 billion kilometers from the nearest genius who soldered its circuits. And somehow, it’s still doing its job. Still whispering back across the void like the universe’s most stubborn postman. Good job little guy... keep going

"Built to last"... uh huh..

Meanwhile, we live in a society where a $1,200 smartphone can’t survive three years without slowing to a crawl, the battery bloating like a corpse in a river, and the software politely suggesting you “upgrade” because it suddenly can’t handle basic tasks anymore. Funny how that works. (Looking at you Windows.)

This is what we’ve built: a disposable society.

We’ve been sold the lie that “newer is better.” But let’s be real; “newer” is just code for “cheaper to make, faster to fail, and shinier so you don’t notice.”

It wasn’t always like this.

There’s that lightbulb in the Livermore firehouse that’s been burning since 1901. A hundred and twenty-plus years. It’s outlasted monarchs, empires, and entire damn civilizations. You could drop a nuke and that bulb would still be glowing like it’s got something to prove.

Now buy an LED bulb at Home Depot. Costs twenty bucks, marketed as “eco-friendly,” and starts flickering in a month. Planned obsolescence dressed up as progress.

Or take the 1950s KitchenAid mixers. Solid metal, built like tanks. People pass them down through generations like family heirlooms. I know folks still baking cookies with Grandma’s. Compare that to today’s $400 “luxury” stand mixers with plastic gears that strip out faster than your patience when customer support puts you on hold.

Cars? My grandfather’s pickup lasted thirty years because it was just steel, rubber, and simple mechanics. Try that with a modern car where the touchscreen fails before the drivetrain does, and repairs cost more than a kidney on the black market.

Even denim. Jeans used to be rugged ... THAT WAS THE POINT ... pants you’d wear to dig a trench or fight a bar brawl. Now you’re lucky if your $90 skinny jeans make it through a single season without the crotch blowing out. (Or you buy them already with holes in them... don't get me started.)

It’s not progress. It’s a scam. And we’re all complicit because we’ve been conditioned to accept it. To believe that a phone, a fridge, or a toaster should be disposable. That we’re “winning” when we can upgrade every year.

But Voyager 1 is still out there. A testament to a time when engineers built for the long haul, not quarterly profits. When failure was unacceptable, and longevity was the goal ... not a liability.

The real kick in the teeth? That little space probe runs on less computing power than a modern key fob. And it’s still alive. Still working.

Meanwhile, we can’t even make a toaster that lasts ten years.

That’s not a lack of ingenuity. It’s by design.