Flip this around and look backwards: how much exists from 1000BC–1000AD (using the "1,000 years to 3,000 years" figure cited by Cerf)? In popular knowledge, not

Flip this around and look backwards: how much exists from 1000BC–1000AD (using the "1,000 years to 3,000 years" figure cited by Cerf)? In popular knowledge, not much: Sun Tzu and Confucius, the Bible, the Kama Sutra, Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, Aristotle, Plato, Egyptian hieroglyphics. Machiavelli, Chaucer, and their peers around the time of Gutenberg are all "too late" in the 14th century. These works survived because they were (presumably) important. Cultural understanding is important to anthropologists and shows up as well (e.g., graffiti at Pompeii). But how much is Crash Bandicoot going to matter in 3000AD? How wide will the cultural divide be? (What's a "computer"? What's a "button"?) What language will they speak? Thus, the concern to me is less how we'll save everything, but more what are the important things to save? After all, the Iliad doesn't stand out among zetabytes of video games, cat pictures, and Kardashian re-runs. Interesting aside: the Department of Energy is facing a similar, simpler challenge with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. Namely, how do you create signage that will work (survive, be understandable) for 10,000 years? (http://www.salon.com/2002/05/10/yucca_mountain/ http://www.salon.com/2002/05/10/yucca_mountain/)