The moral of this story is that old technology isn’t necessarily bad technology. And it is a commentary on not replacing something while it is still working just fine.

At SiliconANGLE, we are strongly disposed toward favoring the newest and best-est, as though the two are always the same. They aren’t, and sometimes the best tech is the tech that’s been doing the job.

Some people really freaked out after 60 Minutes went into our nation’s nuclear control rooms and found the missileers using throw-back technology to keep America safe. I think these people are mostly wrong and exhibit the wrong-headed notion that newer technology is always better technology.

If you believe that, I have copies of Microsoft Vista and Windows 8 that I know you’re going to love. (Send me more examples of loser next-generation tech at the email address below).

Specifically, CBS News found our missileers using 8-inch floppy disks, which went out of style well before the introduction if the IBM PC, which used a 5-1/4-inch floppy disk for storage.

The disks in question, in notebooks labeled “TOP SECRET” contain some portion of the information necessary to send our nuclear missiles on their missions to destroy some (presumably) Russian city. For reasons why that nuclear future has not (yet) happened, I will refer you Russia’s answer to a question posed by musician Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE, better known as Sting. To wit: Russians love their children, too.

But I digress. This is a story, really, about techno-snobbery and how, once a story about the floppies appeared on my Facebook page, my supposed friends started making fun of the ancient technology just because it is old. Doing so is a mistake.

If it ain’t broke…

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The 8-inch floppies have been keeping us safe for decades and the technology has become obscure enough that it is even reasonably secure. The computers that run the software that uses the disks are of a similar vintage. What OS they run, I don’t know, but they aren’t directly connected to the Internet. The whole thing works as an integrated system, with the emphasis on “it works.” And it’s kept us safe since Richard Nixon was President.

This is not a perfect system: Telephones need replacing, important documents — especially microfilm — are becoming unusable. 8-inch floppies aren’t as easy to find as they used to be. Someday something will break and the system will need replacement. One estimate for updating our nuclear deterrent runs to $300-billion.

But beware: What if the nuke system renovators turn out to be the same folks that launched the ObamaCare website last fall? Replacement has its own dangers, especially with you are replacing a system capable of destroying the world.

Remembering that the computer that took men to the moon and returned them safely was what would today be considered to have the brains of a pocket calculator, I have to believe the old nuke control system will remain up to the task until something breaks that cannot be replaced.

That’s when the real danger — modernization — may begin. We don’t work with nuclear control systems, not many of us, at least, but many companies have legacy systems facing the same issues as America’s nukes.

But before diving into a project that doesn’t positively have to be done right now, consider the options. And don’t make fun of technology just because it’s old.