LogFAQs > #953593386

papercup posted...

This. All physical media will eventually be unreadable. Not just because of the change in technology, but because the data itself breaks down.

Often known as "bit rot" for media like CDs and DVDs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation

The real problem is, even entirely digital media will also eventually become unreadable, because errors get introduced when you're dealing with data copied over and over and over and over and over again, sort of similar to how a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox eventually starts to look like shit.



Zeus posted...

Is there no format you can actually trust? =x

This is about the best we've come up with so far:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele

We've basically spent the last few hundred years perfecting technology that can store more and more information, but in ways that last for less and less time. Books printed 500 years ago still exist, but mass market paperbacks printed even 50 years ago can easily have gone brittle, browned, and faded to almost illegibility due to cheaper paper and cheap acidic inks. Very few DVDs (or other optical disc media) will be able to survive a full century, and many will decay past the point of accessibility long before that.

We've basically set ourselves up for a massive collapse of knowledge if our infrastructure ever fails significantly. A thousand years ago it took a rampaging horde of barbarians riding in, setting fire to your libraries, and throwing all the books and scrolls in the river to really wipe out information - today, lack of electricity blanks out SOOOOO much data we depend on.
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