[jbandela1]

> The distinction between history and prehistory has been dissolving for some time

The difference between history and prehistory is like having the source code with comments (history) versus the compiled binary (prehistory). Now the comments may be wrong or misleading but they are valuable to help understand the why.

And written records compared with oral traditions is the difference between having a git history versus just a source file. Having snapshots back in time is valuable to see how things evolved.

[catlifeonmars]

I’d add to this analogy: it’s a compiled binary with many chunks missing.

[drewcoo]

For software, prehistory would be design discussions before any code was written or there was anything in the ticketing system.

[Ar-Curunir]

oral traditions can provide a historical perspective. For example, the Vedas in India preserve pretty well the state of the texts as they were around 500BCE. We know this from linguistic evidence.