Contrary to popular belief, electronic data has proven to be much more ephemeral than books, journals or pieces of plastic art. After all, when was the last time you opened a WordPerfect file or tried to read an 8-inch floppy disk?
Here comes the difference: I still have all of the data that was important from my first commodore 64. I literally have papers I wrote when I was a 5th grader. I can't read the c64 disks now of course but I copied them. From tape to 5 1/4, from low density to high, from c64 to amiga from high desnsity to 3.5, from amiga to pc, from 3.5 to zip, from zip to cd, and now to dvd. My parents lost nearly all of their records and photos in a fire in the mid 80s.
There is no "digital dark ages" because you can copy it. Easily. With no degradation. Yes, NASA lost some data from the viking landing. They learned the same hard lesson as the rest of us. Have backups.
Digital media has its faults but then so do Libraries at Alexandria. Digital's faults are just easier to work around.
Contrary to popular belief, electronic data has proven to be much more ephemeral than books, journals or pieces of plastic art. After all, when was the last time you opened a WordPerfect file or tried to read an 8-inch floppy disk?
Here comes the difference: I still have all of the data that was important from my first commodore 64. I literally have papers I wrote when I was a 5th grader. I can't read the c64 disks now of course but I copied them. From tape to 5 1/4, from low density to high, from c64 to amiga from high desnsity to 3.5, from amiga to pc, from 3.5 to zip, from zip to cd, and now to dvd. My parents lost nearly all of their records and photos in a fire in the mid 80s.
There is no "digital dark ages" because you can copy it. Easily. With no degradation. Yes, NASA lost some data from the viking landing. They learned the same hard lesson as the rest of us. Have backups.
Digital media has its faults but then so do Libraries at Alexandria. Digital's faults are just easier to work around.