Anyone who takes a long view of history might ponder
our own time and whether the system they see is more
sustainable than previous socio-economic systems that
we now sort thru the rubble of.
So, when you select data to archive, consider that if
we do see an economic crisis collapse into a global
financial panic, that it may be a long time before the
data can be examined again.
The corporate assets and endowments which currently
fund research are not based on actual performance and
profit now, but on the expectation of speculators who
try to see what it will be worth later. Actual profit
you can measure with accounting tools; expectations of
speculators are more amenable to social psychology.
That discipline suggests that any unexpected event, be
it a national or natural disaster would affect, as they
say, "market sentiment", and a collapse of prices.
But after the collapse of every great empire, the chaos
and anarchy subside, and some of the artifacts of the
previous era will remain for those interested in their
antiquities. And all this stuff will be sitting there
on what may have once been your hard drive.
You read this message in plain ASCII, and as a format,
it is about as universal as they come.
You might be careful of what you say. The last words
of Clearchus were recorded by Xonophon 2500 years ago,
and despite an illustrious career as a brave soldier,
his last words, "Give up your arms to the king." give
an impression of cowardice he never actually had.
My 3.2 gig HD is probly enough space to record every
other word we have left of what the ancients wrote if
I dont waste too much space on bitmaps of bimbos. We
all mourn the loss of the Alexandrian Library; let's
not do _that_ again.
-- Arachne V1.50;beta, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://home.arachne.cz/
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