On Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Brian Chase wrote:
> A fairly good practical example of this actually working can be found
> by looking no further than the DNA of a species. Modern homo sapiens
> have been around for a lot longer than books. The species has managed
> to stick around this long by passing it's DNA along from individual to
> individual over many tens of thousands of years. It's not a perfect
> example, given that the process involves blending DNA from two
> sources, but the "copy and pass on" mechanism obviously is one that
> works. Digital media should only be looked at as a temporary
> container.
An interesting analogy. But the reason it has worked so well is that
humans have a built-in desire to have sex, and thus propagate our vital
information.
If having sex could promote the propogation of computer documentation then
we could rest easy, but so far being geeky and keeping old computer stuff
around does not necessarily lead to excessive sexual encounters (I must
admit to being an exception ;)
The only surefire way to preserve this stuff is to keep hard copies
somewhere. I'm doing my part.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Sat Jun 23 2001 - 02:55:25 BST