Grrrr, this is such a bugbear for me. I was so excited to read "A Fire Upon The Deep" because hackers talked up the concept of "software archeology" that the book apparently introduced.

The concept is briefly alluded to in the prologue, and then...nada, not relevant to the rest of the plot at all (the _effects_ of the archeology are, but "software archeologists" are not meaningful characters in the narrative). I felt bait-and-switched.

I like to say that the danger of software archaeology is the inevitable discovery of coprolites...

I can’t help but feel like you’re calling me “old”…