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Questioning the wisdom of having massively centralized stores of physical artifacts right now. Museums, libraries...

by natch 8y ago

samstave 8y ago
Funny that this triggered that thought, but the fires of alexandria should have already... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
- natch 8y ago
  I wasn’t saying it’s the first time the thought was triggered.
toomanybeersies 8y ago
On the other hand, if you have them scattered all over the place, you're more likely to lose them bit by bit as they get lost, forgotten, or broken. The other reply to your comment mentioned the Library of Alexandria. If the library wasn't there to store all the books/scrolls, and they were instead scattered around, how many of them would've survived to the modern day? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The obvious answer is to ensure that we have as many backups as possible, in various locations. One of my tasks for the next few months is to backup all my important files (mostly photos), so that I have a copy at my house and a copy on the cloud. Then I'm also going to burn them to archival DVDs and send the DVDs to my parents' house, which is in another country. That way, if I somehow lose all my different backups, I've got much bigger problems (e.g. global disaster, nuclear war, etc).
- laurent123456 8y ago
  Yes since most of these objects are unique, there's no easy way to preserve them. Proper funding for the museum would be a good start and then digitising as much as possible for backup. The high quality photos that the Portrait Gallery did of their collection is a great example [0]. For other objects, 3D scans would be a good way to preserve as much information as possible in case of a disaster. [0] https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitZoom/mw11574/William-Shakespeare?LinkID=mp04051&search=sas&sText=shakespeare&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=0 https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitZoom/mw115...
  - andai 8y ago
    3D scans of museum artefacts are a great idea for another reason: they make the collection accessible to anyone with 3D goggles (or a phone, really), rather than the tiny fraction of a percent able and willing to travel across the world.
- andai 8y ago
  As someone who's lost data more than once due to problem between keyboard and chair, I like this idea of storing important data out of my own reach.
dna_polymerase 8y ago
Right, let's put all our museums on the blockchain. /s Seriously, what would be better? We already struggle to get people interested in these large places, which are so interesting, and now we should try to get people interested in hundreds, some of which would only include niches?
- andai 8y ago
  I'd go out a lot more if I could do it without getting up.

Questioning the wisdom of having massively centralized stores of physical artifacts right now. Museums, libraries...

by natch 8y ago

Questioning the wisdom of having massively centralized stores of physical artifacts right now. Museums, libraries...

Funny that this triggered that thought, but the fires of alexandria should have already... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

natch 8y ago
I wasn’t saying it’s the first time the thought was triggered.

toomanybeersies 8y ago

On the other hand, if you have them scattered all over the place, you're more likely to lose them bit by bit as they get lost, forgotten, or broken. The other reply to your comment mentioned the Library of Alexandria. If the library wasn't there to store all the books/scrolls, and they were instead scattered around, how many of them would've survived to the modern day? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The obvious answer is to ensure that we have as many backups as possible, in various locations. One of my tasks for the next few months is to backup all my important files (mostly photos), so that I have a copy at my house and a copy on the cloud. Then I'm also going to burn them to archival DVDs and send the DVDs to my parents' house, which is in another country. That way, if I somehow lose all my different backups, I've got much bigger problems (e.g. global disaster, nuclear war, etc).

laurent123456 8y ago
Yes since most of these objects are unique, there's no easy way to preserve them. Proper funding for the museum would be a good start and then digitising as much as possible for backup. The high quality photos that the Portrait Gallery did of their collection is a great example [0]. For other objects, 3D scans would be a good way to preserve as much information as possible in case of a disaster. [0] https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitZoom/mw11574/William-Shakespeare?LinkID=mp04051&search=sas&sText=shakespeare&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=0 https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitZoom/mw115...
- andai 8y ago
  3D scans of museum artefacts are a great idea for another reason: they make the collection accessible to anyone with 3D goggles (or a phone, really), rather than the tiny fraction of a percent able and willing to travel across the world.
andai 8y ago
As someone who's lost data more than once due to problem between keyboard and chair, I like this idea of storing important data out of my own reach.

dna_polymerase 8y ago

Right, let's put all our museums on the blockchain. /s Seriously, what would be better? We already struggle to get people interested in these large places, which are so interesting, and now we should try to get people interested in hundreds, some of which would only include niches?

andai 8y ago
I'd go out a lot more if I could do it without getting up.