What is a database?

Once upon a time, in the primitive and barbarian days before computers, the amount of information shepherded by a group of people could be collected in the wisdom and the stories of its older members. In this world, storytellers, magicians, and grandparents were considered great and honored storehouses for all that was known.

Apparently, and according to vast archeological data, campfires were used (like command-line middleware) by the younger members of the community to access the information stored in the minds of the elders using API's such as

public String TellUsAboutTheTimeWhen(String s);.

And then of course, like a sweeping and rapidly-encompassing viral infection, came agriculture, over-production of foodstuffs, and the origins of modern-day commerce.

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