The (possible) existence
of 'A Priori Design' -Part I:
The Waiter's Corkscrew

Is there such a thing as 'A Priori Design'? Is it possible that, just like numbers, design can not only be perfect, but perfect in every possible world?

a priori: En. adjective

aprioricity: En. noun

uk - ɑː priːˈɔː.ri/ 

us - eɪ priːˈɔːr.aɪ/

origin. latin - "from what comes before'

a proposition or idea that is necessarily true is one in which its negation is self-contradictory; it is not only true, but true in every possible world.
 

This is how I see it. Some designs, or innovations interpret nature in its ultimate form, reaching an apex of utility where it seems almost a priori; a design perfectly conceived and evolved to its inevitable conclusion.

But how close can we get to a priori design? If, at its root, design means harnessing maximum utility, maximum aesthetic and just a little elegance, then why not? Consider how the wing of an airliner or the spoiler of an F1 car are mathematically honed for optimal propulsion, while the structure of a bridge support, or the angle of a wooden beam in a cottage are configured with singular purpose.

One example is the ‘waiter’s corkscrew’. Patented in 1883 by German inventor Carl F.A. Wienke,  the design is slim enough to safely and repeatedly slip in and out a waiter’s pinafore, and has three neatly folded tools that effortlessly deal with corks, caps, candles and cigars. It’s also light and damn near indestructible.

The humble sommelier’s knife has, after 140 years, reached its zenith. Improved modern designs offer meager tweaks that stray from the original, managing only to taint a classic, unchanging design. 

Can we describe it as a near-a priori design?

If indeed we do eventually share a glass of burgundy with an extra-terrestrial, one might also assume our new friend’s grasp of sub-light galactic travel implies that they have also devised an elegant way to pop a cork.

Seeking out timeless, near-a priori designs within the current tech revolution, might prove to be more difficult. The age old adage that the smartphone in our pocket has exponentially more computational power than the machines that helped put humans on the moon just a lifetime ago. 

Tech refuses to stand still. Its ever changing nature is in large part the reason why technophiles become enraptured with the accelerating pace of continued technological evolution.

Tech is the frontier of human progress. It’s the flag in the sand. The voice at the edge that almost always proves to be the way forward for us all.

And then there is USB 2.0….

Initially crafted by Intel, Microsoft, IBM and others in 2000, ratified in 2001, arriving in our everyday world around 2004, USB 2.0 was designed for optimum utility, the silver bullet that killed previously ubiquitous legacy portage. These included PS/2 ports, parallel ports, serial and COM ports, and so many other forms of data connection and power delivery types, many of which were closed, proprietary eco-systems bent on using connectors and port design as a weapon in the fight for brand loyalty.

The backdrop of this quickly evolving spurt in in-house developed, proprietary connectivity designs orbits the sudden growth of digital media and affordable battery-powered handheld devices - digital cameras, the iconic iPod, hundreds of affordable mp3 players, plus webcams, printers, and even your mobile (cell) phone. By 2004, the world needed a better path; A Universal Serial Bus.

If I/O ports are golden rings, then USB 2.0 is the one ring to rule them all

USB 1.0 was with us only briefly; a stillborn and forgotten elder sibling that was succeeded by a USB 1.1 standard that broke valuable ground by presenting the world with a snazzy new physical port design that was more robust, consumer-friendly and easier to manufacture. It aimed to solve the increasingly untenable quantity of dusty, orphaned cables, chargers and batteries cluttering a draw of shame somewhere in all of our homes.

To conquer the new digital world, the new USB 2.0 standard provided a theoretical 3900% boost in bandwidth. Suddenly moving your mp3 collection to your mp3 player took just minutes. New USB-based portable media arrived to utterly displace floppy disks, and make CDs feel somehow mechanically inferior. In the space of just 2 years, USB 2.0 had become the dominant force in world connectivity - an incredible adoption pace that has yet to be matched historically speaking.

Welcome to the world of ‘plug n’ play’.

By 2006, it was not uncommon to have a 1GB USB thumb drive in your pocket. The sheer decadence of it all! Heady times indeed. Portable media expanded to include USB connected 2.5” and 3.5” hard drives. No more excuses for not backing up those wedding photos, or that extensive library of dubiously acquired mp3s and XVID videos.

As early Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND flash memory gave way to Multi-Level Cell (MLC) memory, bringing higher capacities at prices we could all afford, thumb drives helped make CD and DVD optical storage technology, if not completely redundant, if not entirely obsolete. Data suddenly became physically free, portable, and for the first time to many humans, data had become ‘equatable’.

This model phone has xxGB of data. This contract gives you xxGB of data. As a species, we all now understand how a) zeros and ones take up space, and b) that your life is largely built around those specific zeros and ones that make up our life. Also c) many life decision are now quantified in GBs and dollars, or more accurately, GBs per Dollar (GB/$).

Let’s get back to USB and introduce, USB-IF (the USB Implementers Forum ) are he profit-free boffins who sit around devising, debating, and delivering the technical blueprint of all USB iterations. Comprising the industry’s top engineers from the same tech power-houses that launched USB back in 1998 (Intel, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and the gang), USB-IF proudly outlined USB 3.0 in 2008.

Heralded as the next major overhaul of our physically connected world, USB 3.0 pushed data bandwidth from 480Mbps to 5Gbps (or 5,000Mbps), and boosted power delivery from 2.5W to 4.5W - all of which made good sense as many flash memory storage products were getting larger and faster meeting the needs of emerging of larger FHD video content, and eventually much larger 4K video footage. Surely USB 3.0 would become an industry standard in no time, playing a crucial role as the fast pipeline between devices.

Despite its clearly superior measurements and a youthful glow better suited to a new era of high quality digital media, USB 3.0 adoption was slower than many of us ever expected. While its older sibling had quickly established near ubiquity in the space of just months, USB 3.0 began to surface on mainstream Windows PCs and laptops around 2011 - three years after its release into the wild - often with a paltry single blue-colored Type-A port, or a single pair on the back I/O panel of a gaming rig.

What caused slow adoption of USB 3.0, and its slickly-named USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps/10W+) successor? The press releases spoke of a new class of connectivity that could transfer xxGB of your favorite TV shows from one device to another in moments, not hours. 

The messaging struck hard at a lived experience where data transfers were just too slow. Consumers got the message. We waited with open arms. Why didn’t the industry deliver?