22 Jun
2001
22 Jun
'01
7:55 p.m.
On Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Brian Chase wrote:
A fairly good practical example of this actually
working can be found
by looking no further than the DNA of a species. Modern homo sapiens
have been around for a lot longer than books. The species has managed
to stick around this long by passing it's DNA along from individual to
individual over many tens of thousands of years. It's not a perfect
example, given that the process involves blending DNA from two
sources, but the "copy and pass on" mechanism obviously is one that
works. Digital media should only be looked at as a temporary
container.
An interesting analogy. But the reason it has worked so well is that
humans have a built-in desire to have sex, and thus propagate our vital
information.
If having sex could promote the propogation of computer documentation then
we could rest easy, but so far being geeky and keeping old computer stuff
around does not necessarily lead to excessive sexual encounters (I must
admit to being an exception ;)
The only surefire way to preserve this stuff is to keep hard copies
somewhere. I'm doing my part.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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