|
As our society progress towards technological advancement in ways to retain knowledge for next generation it is getting harder and harder to retain that knowledge in a form that can last few civilizations
In old days when our recorded history began early Sumerians started creating clay tablets which is still there in readable form after more than 5000 years
Then we got papyrus and papers and it can last few thousand years without decaying
In our generation we got floppy discs , memory drives, SSDs but the question is how long information stored in such form will last for next civilization
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
|
|
|
|
|
Sorry to break this to you, but there isn't any knowledge worth retaining nowadays. 
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
So you're saying Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang is not worth retaining...sacrilegious! 
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Hankey wrote: So you're saying Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang is not worth retaining
OK, there are exceptions. But please, can we just throw Garfield into the great recycling center that bad comics go to?
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Marc Clifton wrote: Sorry to break this to you, but there isn't any knowledge worth retaining nowadays.
Is that a re-tweet?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
Mark_Wallace wrote: Is that a re-tweet?
 Undoubtedly.
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure Norton Anti-virus will still be about.
|
|
|
|
|
P0mpey3 wrote: I'm pretty sure Norton Anti-virus will still be about a PITA.
FTFY!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
It might even have finished a full scan, by then.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
Mmm, I remember years ago the 'Dooms Day Book' (Wiki it if you haven't heard of) was copied and stored on a computer format. The problem is the genius that did it used an Acorn Archimedes which had the data in an obsolete file format, so they had to go back and redo the do once operation to be able to put it on line... I agree with Pomps Norton Antivirus will still be around!
|
|
|
|
|
We have time caspules. 
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
|
|
|
|
|
Interesting enough, the next generation does not care very much about what I could record for them. With the ignorance and arrogance that have been the privilege of every generation, they know everything better and doom themselves to learning many lessons the hard way. If at all.
And if you just worry about the life cycle of physical storage media: The estimates usually are very conservative. I have a box of cassette tapes with the software of my first computer. The oldest programs are from 1978 and some of the tapes are even older and of the cheapest quality I could find. Still, the old computer can load the programs and I also have written a program to reconstruct the binaries from digital recordings of the tapes. With that little program even unloadable programs could be recovered.
What I did not know when I wrote the program, was that it had found its way into science: Paper on reviving old hardware.[^]. As far as I know, this was in preparation of the New horizons mission, which is going to reach Pluto next year. A lot of now more than a decade old hardware will have to be put out of storage and reactivated by then.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
|
|
|
|
|
virang_21 wrote: but the question is how long information stored in such form will last for next civilization
Using the least advanced technology. Backward compatability.
Paper and digital files. The method used to save the digit files will change (floppy disk, cd, dvd, flash drive, hd, solid state drive, etc...) but they are still digital files.
and paper, as long as the paper is archival quality and stored in a safe place, it should be fine.
redundancy. having important knowledge, stored in more than one place, should ensure its safety for future generations.
to your question, "How long?". Well, if done correctly, then indefinitely.
|
|
|
|
|
They weren't all that good at it back then either. Think of how much we actually still have from them (ignore clay tablets used for inventory management, that's not knowledge), and then think about how much there used to be in the library of Alexandria. And it didn't even have everything!
We could engrave a bunch of knowledge on steel plates encased in fused quartz or something like that, and dump them in deserts around the world. But a society obsessed with hedonism at the small scale and the economy at the large scale is incapable of taking actions that it doesn't benefit from.
|
|
|
|
|
And remember that although Egyptian writing survived for thousands of years, we couldn't read it until 1822: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone[^]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
|
|
|
|
|
But a society obsessed with hedonism at the small scale and the economy at the large scale is incapable of taking actions that it doesn't benefit from.
Wonderfully put Harold. 
(Still, if we last long enough, I am sure that there will be digital archaeologists around that know nothing about fingers.)
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
|
|
|
|
|
|
harold aptroot wrote: But a society obsessed with hedonism at the small scale and the economy at the large scale is incapable of taking actions that it doesn't benefit from.
Is there any kind of probable human society capable of taking any action that it does not perceive it will benefit from?
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
|
|
|
|
|
Sure, I mean, it's not immediately self-evidently impossible, right?
Of course it can't spend too much resources on getting side-tracked..
|
|
|
|
|
For you, sir, a short story written many years ago:
MS FND IN A LBRY
Enjoy!
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
|
|
|
|
|
If every random schmuck in those ancient civilizations was literate and had access to clay, writing implements, etc, we'd think humanity had always put weird clothes on their cats, traded witty insults ("Hittites suck!", "Another idiot from the Eluma Elish Belt!"). So maybe it's better when a society's trivia does kinda crumble away...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks man. I plan to keep rocking on!I mean, someone's gotta stay alive to see what article you cook up next.
Jeremy Falcon
|
|
|
|
|
Jeremy Falcon wrote: someone's gotta stay alive to see what article you cook up next.
Yeah, all these newbies who don't us from a turnip! (or whatever the expression is)
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
Happy Birthday Jeremy. I had one yesterday, and am quite grateful it's a week before I get paid. I feel quite sparkly this morning compared to if I'd had money yesterday.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
