On Wed, 31 May 2000, William Donzelli wrote:
> The choice of medium is really unimportant, and as pointed out, kind of
> silly when one deals in even a few megabytes (how much mylar tape is that
> again?). Embrace this new technology - it really does work well. The old
> technology just doesn't cut the mustard anymore.
On the other hand, what happens when/if civilization falls into another
dark period (world war, nuclear holocaust, whatever-doomsday-scenario)?
Longevity of the medium becomes an issue if you have a bleak outlook for
our future. You also have to count on future generations having the same
devotion that our current little group does with regards to archiving old
software.
I'm an optimistic pessismist (in other words, a realist). I don't think
we can always count on future generations to carry on the tradition and
continue moving the archives from one RAID network to the next in
perpetuity. And who knows, maybe one day the electricity will run out.
Hence, the need for a longterm physical solution. One that will require
no maintenance from people. Something that can sit in a cave undiscovered
for millenia to be uncovered at some future date and leave the future
discoverers in awe of our primitive technology.
If someone wants to buy and then punch millions of feet of mylar punch
tape with the archive that we will eventually create, then find an out of
the way cave somewhere to hide it all in, be my guest.
My prefered course of action is to keep it digital until some long lasting
(near infinity), incredibly high density (megabytes/gigabytes per square
inch) magnetic medium can be invented.
Shit, this would be so much easier if the whole planet just got sucked
into a black hole. Then it wouldn't matter anymore ;)
Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
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Received on Wed May 31 2000 - 13:59:24 BST