Comment by verisimi

> how can I reinterpret the past such that it also experienced a bunch of clownish nonsense?

The thing is, you don't know what happened in the past - you weren't there. What you have is a lot of stories and films that bring that to life for you.

Personally, I'm pretty sure nothing in the implementation has changed, but that the goals being sought have changed, as has the technology and therefore the implementation.