Entering a digital dark age?

Started by Esper September 16th, 2013 9:23 AM
  • 457 views
  • 4 replies

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I dunno if this isn't better in the Technology & Internet section, but whatever.

The so-called 'digital dark age' is an idea that as technology changes we'll lose access to data stored on older technology or in outdated formats. This has implications for the scientific community (such as NASA which has already had difficulties with lost observational data that can't be recreated) and the wider world in which many historically or culturally significant events are primarily or solely being recorded digitally. Without 'hard' copies do we run the risk of losing important information? Is the risk too high? Is it feasible to keep a hard copy of everything? How can we learn to decide what information is worth keeping? Insert you own question here?
Male
Seen January 2nd, 2014
Posted November 28th, 2013
180 posts
11.6 Years
There should always be a hard copy of anything for backup purposes. Digital data is just not reliable enough. What good is a hard drive if it goes bad in a few years? As far as older data... well, older data could theoretically be updated to support newer formats. Or you could write programs that are backward compatible with older formats, but that's a lot to keep track of.

Shiny Celebi

Seen August 25th, 2015
Posted October 17th, 2013
2,377 posts
12 Years
Data can be lost, even if you're very careful, things happen, computers break and get viruses, it's just how technology is. Like everything else it's flawed. Yes there should be hard copies of everything, especially things which are very important, if data is lost and not backed up, it can't be recovered. I think this should just be common sense to have a copy of everything.

Kanzler

naughty biscotti

Male
Toronto
Seen April 22nd, 2022
Posted March 11th, 2022
5,957 posts
14.8 Years
To me, media is media. Piece of 2000 year old parchment can be ripped or rot, but digitally it will stand a testament to civilization and culture for eternity. I think the appropriate response is to digitalize everything. Hard copies can be easily physically destroyed, but digital data can be copied over and over and over. I'd take the flip side and say that we should make "soft" copies of everything. At least that would solve the cost problem. If the issue is not having the apparatus to read the old data, why not convert it into a format we can read?
Age 29
Male
Melbourne, Australia
Seen January 2nd, 2015
Posted November 28th, 2014
910 posts
12.1 Years
Well, vinyl is making a huge comeback. Some people are returning to older styles of music in that desperate struggle to be more hipster than the next.

I don't know anyone who owns a VCR player anymore. And some people on here won't ever know what they are and why they're awesome when they break.

So I'd say yes, especially in the music industry unless it's being remastered as digital audio data then it'll soon be forgotten. RIP Analogue playback media.