I find this post ironic in that it (unintentionally) mirrors the atticle's point.
Graph (hierarchical) databases and time series (SCADA) datbases predate your (implicit) definition of "database" as a "relational datbase."
Key values have also existed before Oracle came to be.
It's never really been a matter of "rethinking from first principles".
Like Norvig's contraint propagation in the post, it has been about choosing the right design for the problem at hand, instead of trying to fit square pegs into round holes.
Graph (hierarchical) databases and time series (SCADA) datbases predate your (implicit) definition of "database" as a "relational datbase."
Key values have also existed before Oracle came to be.
It's never really been a matter of "rethinking from first principles".
Like Norvig's contraint propagation in the post, it has been about choosing the right design for the problem at hand, instead of trying to fit square pegs into round holes.