"This is 18th-century augmented reality. The mirror would subtract the confusing details, distort the perspective, make some colors brighter and others darker," he said. 

Often older media offers us a way to understand new technologies. "Prior forms are needed because they act like gateways and handrails" to some new technology, he said. 

For example, some digital cameras have a sound file of a shutter clicking that plays as the image is captured, replicating the sound of a mechanical camera.

When it first was introduced, photography itself was often considered "the pencil of nature," as it offered the ability to create instant paintings. Early photographs replicated still-life paintings. Only after a while did people "begin to understand photography as a form in itself."

Other platforms live on specifically because of their obscurity, seen in the trend among some music labels of releasing music only on cassette.