…years ago there was something called the sound barrier. Airplanes were supposed not to be able to go faster than the speed of sound because, if you designed them normally and then tried to put the speed of sound in the equations, the propeller wouldn’t work and the wings don’t lift and nothing works correctly. Nonetheless, airplanes can go faster than the speed of sound. You just have to know what the right laws are under the right circumstances, and design the device with the correct laws. You cannot expect old designs to work in new circumstances. But new designs work in new circumstances…
Richard Feynman, Computing Machines in the Future
Notes