pete wrote:
>
> "Thomas Lunde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Just recently, I was reading
> >a posting about all the early computer tapes, discs, hard drives, etc that
> >we are losing for two reasons, one the storage devices are deteriotating and
> >two we are losing the disk drives, operating systems, formats, in which this
> >knowledge was stored.
[snip]
> Each time the data is migrated, the experimenters have to decide
> what data they feel is worth spending the time to copy, and of
> course, a lot is discarded. Does this matter? It's hard to say.
> One could reasonably argue that there is no earthly reason why
> anyone would ever want to look at old particle physics data tapes
> again. On the other hand, we still have the log books of experiments
> from two hundred years ago, and people still like to go back and
> look at some of the notable ones, those from significant experiments,
> or famous experimenters. But the people who do this are rarely
> doing it to check the data, rather they are historians of science
> or commentators on scientific method. Future counterparts would
> find very little of value on data tapes.
[snip]
Certainly astronomy is one science in which this does not
apply. I believe contemporary astronomers are still using
ancient Babylonian observations to help figure
out where the stars are moving.
Second, I would like to quote (from defective
memory) something Enrico Fermi said ca. 1940,
speaking of one cloud chamber photograph from
about 1930: He said that had he paid better
attention to a certain detail of that picture, he would
have made one of his most important
discoveries ten years earlier than he did.
If the entropy of electronic documents gets
bad enough, we may find ourselves losing
our history, and becoming in an ironic
way like our primary-oral ancestors: With
only the present version of a past (bards'
tales for them; recent computer files for us --
it is worth noting that the epic poems
of primary-oral societies, through various
poetic techniques of rhyme, rhythm, etc.
implement powerful *Error Detection
and Correction* coding -- very much like computer
data).
\brad mccormick
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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