3 ms·

I generally (perhaps naively) think that going forward knowledge loss won't be much of an issue compared to our history. Surely the archeologists of the future

by yreg 5y ago

I generally (perhaps naively) think that going forward knowledge loss won't be much of an issue compared to our history. Surely the archeologists of the future won't have to wonder what some tool from our times was used for or what some symbol we currently use means… They will have Wikipedia and archive.org and whatnot! But that fantasy is not compatible with reality where we are already unable to find out what is the purpose of some characters in Unicode.

berkes 5y ago
That presumes humans can access our (electronic) media and understand it, in some 8.000 years or further. There's no saying that there'll be a society capable of reading bits and bytes by then. Not just collapsed society -they'll hardly be interested in reading a random discussion on an orange forum for a niche group that lived 8000 years ago- but maybe even societies that are vastly technical superior to our own but cannot fathom what things meant 8 millenia back. I mean we have texts from some 600 years ago, that we can read, but cannot understand (e.g. Rohonc Codex). Eventhough our technology and knowledge is far superior to when it was written.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  It will probably be even worse in the future, given that internet subgroups form their own language dialects as a kind of shibboleth. "Why do people in this group of wall drivers show off their wedding bands?"
chadlavi 5y ago
On the contrary: books might survive total societal collapse, but electronics don't.
- yreg 5y ago
  Sure, but my prediction is that the human civilization is likely to never have a total societal collapse.
mitchdoogle 5y ago
Even digital storage is not permanent. Important things will be copied and preserved, but I imagine at some point so many of the relics of everyday life will be deleted or deteriorate at some point in the far future, such as this very comment
tsol 5y ago
Electronics become unusuable quickly, though. We can find stone tablets and clay pottery, but 10k years from now will they be able to find hard drives and extract useful data? Seems like it can easily go in the opposite direction

by yreg 5y ago

berkes 5y ago

That presumes humans can access our (electronic) media and understand it, in some 8.000 years or further. There's no saying that there'll be a society capable of reading bits and bytes by then. Not just collapsed society -they'll hardly be interested in reading a random discussion on an orange forum for a niche group that lived 8000 years ago- but maybe even societies that are vastly technical superior to our own but cannot fathom what things meant 8 millenia back. I mean we have texts from some 600 years ago, that we can read, but cannot understand (e.g. Rohonc Codex). Eventhough our technology and knowledge is far superior to when it was written.

mywittyname 5y ago
It will probably be even worse in the future, given that internet subgroups form their own language dialects as a kind of shibboleth. "Why do people in this group of wall drivers show off their wedding bands?"

chadlavi 5y ago

On the contrary: books might survive total societal collapse, but electronics don't.

yreg 5y ago
Sure, but my prediction is that the human civilization is likely to never have a total societal collapse.

mitchdoogle 5y ago

Even digital storage is not permanent. Important things will be copied and preserved, but I imagine at some point so many of the relics of everyday life will be deleted or deteriorate at some point in the far future, such as this very comment

tsol 5y ago

Electronics become unusuable quickly, though. We can find stone tablets and clay pottery, but 10k years from now will they be able to find hard drives and extract useful data? Seems like it can easily go in the opposite direction