Text 25854, 68 rader
Skriven 2012-06-08 00:43:00 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Dave Sacerdote
Ärende: PSYCHOLOGY 761 20607
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 -=> Quoting Dave Sacerdote to Michael Loo <=-

 ML> Indeed. The printed word has its purpose. I have mixed
 ML> feelings about the Googleization of libraries, but on
 ML> the whole it is fine, just so the originals are kept and
 ML> the electronic copies are safeguarded against destruction
 ML> and tampering.

 DS> Hard copy paper-and-board books are the only true means we have
 DS> of speaking to the future. I continue to believe that even in 
 DS> the face of ever more electronic means of archiving. A Shakespeare
 DS> folio printed four hundred years ago is readable today. A text
 DS> file saved to a common digital medium just ten years ago is as
 DS> good as lost to time, since the equipment needed to read it
 DS> passed into obsolescence and now unavailable.

You make a point that I often stress to people.  In fact, you can go
back nearly 2000 years to the Dead Sea copper scrolls, and 3000 years
to shopping lists scratched on clay tablets found in Egyptian tombs,
and Incan calendars.  Of course the amount of data recorded in those
days was nowhere near as great as that stored on modern digital
storage devices, but most of what is stored now is irrelevant.  Who
would care in the future whether the words they read are in Times
Roman 14 or any other fancy script?

So what is the answer?  Magnetic tape would be out, as magnetism
fades, and tapes lose their material over time.  Laser-etched CDs and
DVDs have a much better chance of surviving, but only if the tiny
depressions are protected from corrosion and fungus contamination.
That means using gold or similar noble metal, and keeping it in a
vacuum or inert gas.

Looking forward 1000 years, or even 100 years, presuming humans still
exist, if those disks are still kept in a viable condition in a
library, if anyone wanted to refer to them, how would they read them?
Would a 100 year old CD or DVD player, if one could be found, still
work?  (In my experience, they are lucky to last 10 years!)

Years ago, the South Australian Library put a lot of its stuff onto
microfische film, and installed readers.  They are now getting a bit
erratic, and probably the consumables (film) probably becoming more
difficult to obtain.

DS> I think it's a great thing that Google has taken on the task
DS> of digitizing as much of printed knowledge as they can. That DS>
has the potential of allowing much wider access to the material. DS>
But as we've discussed before: What happens when the batteries DS>
die?
 
 ML> The only issue I have is that stuff is going to be forgotten,
 ML> and if it's forgotten, it didn't happen.

 DS> That's why it's as important as ever to hand skills and knowledge
 DS> forward. It's why I taught Lynn to count back change in a transaction;
 DS> why it's important to know how to read a map and use a compass;
 DS> why the US Navy still teaches midshipmen how to use a sextant.

The Australian Aborigines have mainly passed on their culture orally
for the past 40,000 years, with the assistance of a few cave
paintings that have been touched up every 20 years or so.  Perhaps
that is the best way...

And I suppose you have taught Lynn arithmatic without the assistance
of a calculator....
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