4 ms·

It will all be "accidentally" deleted when someone decides they don't want to pay the storage bill anymore, like what happened with Myspace.

slimsag 3y ago
That, combined with the proliferation of information being distributed as text-in-pictures or voice/text-in-video form will make it computationally difficult to search.
- gamepsys 3y ago
  In the world where general computing continues to become cheaper over time both of those are not problems in the long term.
- philipkglass 3y ago
  Optical character recognition and audio transcription are improving at such a pace that I don't think this will be a significant barrier for future historians. Even now, on a computer with modest resources (e.g. laptop without dedicated GPU), whisper.cpp makes it practical to transcribe hours of podcast audio or other speech. And the transcription only needs to be done once. https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp
  - bobthepanda 3y ago
    you would probably run into the bigger issue of how to search for what is truly relevant. will the researchers of 3000 be able to tell the difference between AI or content-farm clickbait vs decent primary and secondary sources? even today we have issues determining if what sources from antiquity say is true.
    - Tadpole9181 3y ago
      This is not a novel problem, historians already deal with this. Written history is rife with lies, inaccuracies, huge holes (often artificially created), and propaganda. The scale may be larger, but the fundamental issue is the same.
      - bobthepanda 3y ago
        the problem with AI generated content is that this starts extending into areas that didn't really have much of a reason to lie in the first place. as a general example, there wasn't much propaganda value in lying about food, so for the most part we can trust those descriptions to be true, particularly in guides intended to be written as cookbooks. in 2024, we have legion accounts making fake recipes for the sole purpose of getting clicks for ad dollars.
user3939382 3y ago
Wait, someone deleted my MySpace?
- ta1243 3y ago
  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-l... Myspace, the once mighty social network, has lost every single piece of content uploaded to its site before 2016, including millions of songs, photos and videos with no other home on the internet. The company is blaming a faulty server migration for the mass deletion, which appears to have happened more than a year ago, when the first reports appeared of users unable to access older content. The company has confirmed to online archivists that music has been lost permanently, dashing hopes that a backup could be used to permanently protect the collection for future generations. ...
  - gpspake 3y ago
    Tragic. Archive the stuff you love. There was a ton of music history there that's just gone forever.
  - ansmithz42 3y ago
    Don't trust the "Cloud" for your backups.
- phlipski 3y ago
  People are still USING MySpace?!?!
  - shiroiushi 3y ago
    People stopped using it for regular stuff ages ago, when they migrated to Facebook. However, it became a haven for music lovers, with indie musicians and the like using it to communicate with their fans. They probably should have renamed it "MyMusic" or "MusicSpace" or something like that.

slimsag 3y ago

That, combined with the proliferation of information being distributed as text-in-pictures or voice/text-in-video form will make it computationally difficult to search.

gamepsys 3y ago
In the world where general computing continues to become cheaper over time both of those are not problems in the long term.
philipkglass 3y ago
Optical character recognition and audio transcription are improving at such a pace that I don't think this will be a significant barrier for future historians. Even now, on a computer with modest resources (e.g. laptop without dedicated GPU), whisper.cpp makes it practical to transcribe hours of podcast audio or other speech. And the transcription only needs to be done once. https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  you would probably run into the bigger issue of how to search for what is truly relevant. will the researchers of 3000 be able to tell the difference between AI or content-farm clickbait vs decent primary and secondary sources? even today we have issues determining if what sources from antiquity say is true.
  - Tadpole9181 3y ago
    This is not a novel problem, historians already deal with this. Written history is rife with lies, inaccuracies, huge holes (often artificially created), and propaganda. The scale may be larger, but the fundamental issue is the same.
    - bobthepanda 3y ago
      the problem with AI generated content is that this starts extending into areas that didn't really have much of a reason to lie in the first place. as a general example, there wasn't much propaganda value in lying about food, so for the most part we can trust those descriptions to be true, particularly in guides intended to be written as cookbooks. in 2024, we have legion accounts making fake recipes for the sole purpose of getting clicks for ad dollars.

user3939382 3y ago

Wait, someone deleted my MySpace?

ta1243 3y ago
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-l... Myspace, the once mighty social network, has lost every single piece of content uploaded to its site before 2016, including millions of songs, photos and videos with no other home on the internet. The company is blaming a faulty server migration for the mass deletion, which appears to have happened more than a year ago, when the first reports appeared of users unable to access older content. The company has confirmed to online archivists that music has been lost permanently, dashing hopes that a backup could be used to permanently protect the collection for future generations. ...
- gpspake 3y ago
  Tragic. Archive the stuff you love. There was a ton of music history there that's just gone forever.
- ansmithz42 3y ago
  Don't trust the "Cloud" for your backups.
phlipski 3y ago
People are still USING MySpace?!?!
- shiroiushi 3y ago
  People stopped using it for regular stuff ages ago, when they migrated to Facebook. However, it became a haven for music lovers, with indie musicians and the like using it to communicate with their fans. They probably should have renamed it "MyMusic" or "MusicSpace" or something like that.