Gingerella72
8-6-11, 1:18pm
The thought struck me today that perhaps the world changing from hardcopy records to digital isn't a wise idea.
Newpaper articles, photos, letters, documents, and now even books - 500 years from now will these digital forms we rely on so much today still be around, perhaps in some ancient server? Or will they all just be lost to time? What we know of our human history, we owe (in great part) to the paper or hardcopy records our ancestors left behind. Sure much of it was lost to fire, or decaying into dust, but much of it did survive.
All it takes now to erase something forever on the computer is hit the delete button and poof, it's gone into the ether. And as technology keeps updating at such a rapid pace, we have to transfer over all our digital records from the old to the new equipment, over and over and over again. And if we don't, we risk the danger of the old becoming so obsolete that the information becomes irretrievable (i.e. floppy disks).
How are we going to preserve our history for infinity if everything is digital? Or if there ever comes a time where electricity is unavailable to power up the machines and gadgets?
What got me thinking about all this was that I have a huge store of bookmarked links on my computer to different websites that have how-to information. I figure I can just look up whatever I want when needed. But lately a few of those links no longer work and those sites no longer exist. I regretted not printing hard copies of the pages, but then I thought, doesn't printing out a paper copy kind of defeat the purpose of having a computer and being more paperless? But then if the info is no longer accessible on the internet or on your own computer, what do you do?
Just musing about how all of our rush to go digital on everything will play out over the years. Future generations will never have the thrill of unlocking an old chest and discovering their great-great grandmother's stack of old love letters and sepia photographs.....unless great-great grandmother leaves behind a flash drive with a password.....and there is a machine that the flash drive will actually work on. Or will all of our blogs (diaries) about our lives still be floating around out there 100 years from now for our ancestors to discover?
I for one am going to start printing out paper copies of information I feel is vital and keep it in a 3 ring binder. That way if I ever find myself without a computer at least I'll still have access to my "stuff".
Newpaper articles, photos, letters, documents, and now even books - 500 years from now will these digital forms we rely on so much today still be around, perhaps in some ancient server? Or will they all just be lost to time? What we know of our human history, we owe (in great part) to the paper or hardcopy records our ancestors left behind. Sure much of it was lost to fire, or decaying into dust, but much of it did survive.
All it takes now to erase something forever on the computer is hit the delete button and poof, it's gone into the ether. And as technology keeps updating at such a rapid pace, we have to transfer over all our digital records from the old to the new equipment, over and over and over again. And if we don't, we risk the danger of the old becoming so obsolete that the information becomes irretrievable (i.e. floppy disks).
How are we going to preserve our history for infinity if everything is digital? Or if there ever comes a time where electricity is unavailable to power up the machines and gadgets?
What got me thinking about all this was that I have a huge store of bookmarked links on my computer to different websites that have how-to information. I figure I can just look up whatever I want when needed. But lately a few of those links no longer work and those sites no longer exist. I regretted not printing hard copies of the pages, but then I thought, doesn't printing out a paper copy kind of defeat the purpose of having a computer and being more paperless? But then if the info is no longer accessible on the internet or on your own computer, what do you do?
Just musing about how all of our rush to go digital on everything will play out over the years. Future generations will never have the thrill of unlocking an old chest and discovering their great-great grandmother's stack of old love letters and sepia photographs.....unless great-great grandmother leaves behind a flash drive with a password.....and there is a machine that the flash drive will actually work on. Or will all of our blogs (diaries) about our lives still be floating around out there 100 years from now for our ancestors to discover?
I for one am going to start printing out paper copies of information I feel is vital and keep it in a 3 ring binder. That way if I ever find myself without a computer at least I'll still have access to my "stuff".