Quote:
Originally Posted by dorino
I feel people are forgetting that digital storage is just as real as printed paper. It'll last a while, and probably longer than a book. Longevity is digital, simply put. It's a lot easier to take a copy of an ebook, say, 80% into the lifetime of a storage device, and put it on a new one, than to copy a book.
The argument that books are some how more durable and last longer is just weird to me, when one considers that ebooks are able to be transferred, shared, and as a result are essentially viral.
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"viral" lasts one generation, a couple at most...
To preserve for centuries a digital book you need:
- A safe place
- A safe storage
- The technology to access the medium (which, in turn, has to be preserved)
- The medium itself (again, to be preserved)
- The ability to decode the information in it (file format, bit/byte algebra)
- A reading device complete with hw&sw (which, in turn, has to be preserved)
- The power supply (same voltage, enough energy, etc...)
To preserve for centuries a paper book you need:
- A safe place
To preserve for millennia a book you need:
- A chisel
- A stone (did I say
Rosetta?)