I have been reading the SciFi fantasy trilogy "Voyage of the Jerle
Shannara" by Terry Brooks.  I'd like to share with you what I discovered
in several chapters toward the end of the second volume that speak to
preservation of information and the future.

 

The essence of the plot, to that point, is that "the last of the Druids"
and several persons picked carefully for their special talents, have
embarked on a journey to a land several months distant to recover a
treasure of profound magic that is more than 3000 years old.  Toward the
end of the second book, it suddenly became clear to me that the main
characters were not from a civilization of "Middle Earth", but a time
3000 years into the future from our present time.  The area which they
came to explore was a vast place of metal that was in ruins from "the
Great War" and was guarded by laser beams that shot "fire threads" and
mechanical, robotic dogs. The treasure that the Druid was seeking, he
thought, were books with all the knowledge of the world housed in what
would have been called a Library. He believed this knowledge would
alleviate the poverty and correct the lack of knowledge in his
civilization.  But as he searched the building in which he knew they
were housed, he found no large shelving units nor closets in which such
items could have been preserved.   He then looked for an alternate
method of preserving the information and discovered a room in the hub of
this vast electronic village with machinery that held disks.   Voices
could be heard as the disks were constantly being reformatted
automatically onto new disks to prevent loss of information.   He
realized at that moment that there was no knowledge nor equipment in his
world that could translate any of the material on the disks, and he had
to make the decision to abandon taking the disks back because they would
be useless, or destroying the monster that controlled the systems and
therefore destroy the disks as well.

 

Does this not speak to the dilemma that we constantly discuss on the
ListServ about the longevity of disks and the constant turnover of the
equipment to access the information they contain?   Thank about it ....
What will happen in 3000 years when a civilization of unknown
proportions seeks to discover and decipher the contents of the
information that we have preserved?  What will be their best chance ...
Paper or disks?

 

Lynne F. Wohleber

Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh

900 Oliver Building

535 Smithfield St.

Pittsburgh, PA  15222

412-325-0087 x138

FAX:  412-471-5591

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