[LINK] Digital doomsday: the end of knowledge

ARTHUR,Evan (Dr) Evan.ARTHUR at deewr.gov.au
Thu Apr 8 10:47:50 AEST 2010


Brendan Scott wrote:

>What this doesn't take account of is that a hard disk is somewhat more reproducible than a cuneiform tablet. That the medium does not survive is different from the massage not surviving.

Kim Holburn wrote:

>Huh?  My seven year old daughter might be able to reproduce a cuneiform tablet by pressing it into playdough and making a copy.   I,on the other hand, have a hard disk here that has given up the ghost,after maybe 2 years of working.  You are welcome to try and reproduce any scrap of information in it.

So what we have here are a number of distinct considerations.  One is the ease of ability to replicate the message stored in particular media.  It is definitely easier and quicker to replicate data on a hard disk (while it is working) than it is to stick a stylus into wet clay and then bake the clay (anyone care to estimate how long it would take to replicate a megabyte?).  

However, to misquote McLuhan, the medium can mess with the message. There are two key problems with electronic media.  One is shelf life.  A baked clay tablet can definitely outlast a hard disk, particularly in the deserts of Iraq.  The example I am more familiar with, a set of marble stelai preserving the archives of the Athenian state, even more clearly demonstrates the trade off between ease of replication of the message and durability of the underlying medium.  But there is another difference, namely the ability to degrade gracefully.  A baked clay tablet or a marble stele can still provide a large amount of information even after it has been damaged, so long as that damage is not catastrophic.  Kim's experience demonstrates the reverse does not hold true for a hard disk.


Evan Arthur
Group Manager
Digital Education and Youth Transitions Group
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
*: GPO Box 9880 Canberra ACT 2601
' 02 6240 5187 ': 0412 329 169
* evan.arthur at deewr.gov.au 


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