“…I think it will always be possible to recreate the tools on which to use old medium.” – lee
While this is a possibility, I would posit that when our culture is long dead and buried and our technology has all rusted away into oblivion, the possibility of a visitor from another planet reconstructing the tools necessary to reconstruct what was communicated by old Morse code machines, while perhaps possible after the specific type of electricity that we used as well as our specific sense of sound was determined, the actual messages sent over the wires have long ago decayed to a point that I have grave doubt that they could be ever captured again. This even though the human psyche and language would have to be reconstructed too. When it comes to digital storage devices, once the technology and/or media has decayed, something that happens much faster than say the decay of the pyramids and/or Syrian (or other cultural) stella as well as is the case for things like the Rosetta stone…something that even human beings would have been hard pressed to do without when it comes to understanding and reconstructing older communications. And, yes, there are a few people who have old Commodor 64s in ‘mothballs’. Also, yes, a precious few retain other earlier computers like the old VM machines (NorthStar produced a nice machine.) And, there do still exist a few stereoscope viewers, mostly in museums even though they were invented only about a century ago. Of course, the cardboard cards with the pictures and messages on them can be read without the viewer. However, in most cases, the newer the technology, the shorter the lifespan of it and its associated data. One specific is the Univac. While it wasn’t even shipped until about 50 years ago, and major military and corporate monoliths were the purchasers as well as archivers thereof, I have grave doubt that much if any that was stored on them still exists. Their ‘useful’ lifespan was not even 20 years! Yes, I know that some of the data most likely was transferred to a different media, however, this discussion was the spin off from the idea of leaving behind some sort of recorded video message so that future generations would know what ‘we’ were about…I have doubts about this working…at least not working nearly as well as other and much more ancient media has over the millennia. On Sep 21, 8:09 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree and disagree. I still have records, tapes and old CD's that I > still use. I also still ahve old paper letters from penpals of years > ago. > > Meduim does change but I think it will always be possible to recreate > the tools on which to use old medium. > > On 21 Sep, 15:58, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > “… Perhaps, in the future, it will be standard > > procedure to leave a video biography before one dies such that people > > can write an 'extended epitaph' and have their own say that others > > can > > refer to….” – Pat [from a different thread] > > > One of the big technological problems here is that ANY specific > > technology used for such a video will be obsolete within a decade and/ > > or the media itself will decay within a similar time span. Paper and > > ink and paintings can and have lasted thousands of years. Stone and > > metal messages exist from similar epochs. I remember playing cylinder > > records on a Victrola type player. (How many still have 78 records?) > > Also, music from a player of metal disks and a player piano. A few > > original photos exist, fewer still from the era of the Polaroid > > camera. And, who still has information stored on punch cards? What > > about text from a DOS operation system computer? 8-track tape player? > > Tape cassette player and cassettes? How about just a 10 year old CD? > > Heck, what about emails from 8 years ago? > > > People used to save personal letters and many still exist centuries > > later, at least from ‘famous’ people. This seldom is the case for > > emails, let alone phone calls or other recorded media. We have become > > a culture of not only very short attention spans but of even shorter > > historical memories. > > > How say you?- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
