I recall hearing an NPR story not too long ago that the Library of Congress
is transcribing a bunch of recordings onto some type of analog media
(LP-like discs or something), precisely because of the fear that current
digital formats will be unreadable in the near future. Not only because, as
you point out, the storage media and playback mechanisms may not last very
long, but the algorithms and meta data for decoding the digital data may be
lost.

At 10:22 AM 5/9/2003 -0400, rosenblatt, joseph wrote:
>David Heasman brings up an interesting point. As information storage and
>recall becomes more complex its connectivity decreases. 78 rpm records
>require a fairly simple and inexpensive technology to recall their data. A
>DAT requires a more complex and a much more expensive technology.
>Today's technology is based on a much shorter life cycle. A generation is
>only a few years long. Most of us were around when 9 track tape was state of
>the art. Since then, less than twenty years ago, we have gone from  DDS to
>DAT, DAT to CD, CD to DVD and so on. Will their be a working DAT drive in
>100 years? Will the material that the media is made of last 100 years?
>By comparison we know papyrus and clay cylinders will last for millennia. As
>for the recall technology, eyeballs have been around as long as people.
>Simplicity and connectivity have a direct correlation. I am not sure what
>the formula is but like Moore's law there must be one.
>This is not a Luddite plea to go backwards or even an appeal to stop going
>forward. I am just pointing out that if we are to add to the knowledge base
>for our posterity we must constantly renew the "old knowledge" on new
>technology. In some areas we are doing so, e.g. digitalizing old recordings
>and movies. I also think that it behooves us to keep the old technology in
>working order so we can view the original in its true form. (On that note
>let me thank Ed Sharpe and others that are doing just that.)
>Record those thoughts. Store those thoughts. Make those thoughts accessible.

--
Tom Brandt
Northtech Systems, Inc.
130 S. 1st Street, Suite 220
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1343
http://www.northtech.com/

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