[HN Gopher] The 2012 Millennium Artifact
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The 2012 Millennium Artifact
Author : 1970-01-01
Score : 35 points
Date : 2023-01-29 02:38 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cs.rochester.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cs.rochester.edu)
| mavhc wrote:
| In the end the part that failed was anyone caring enough to
| update what happened
| spiritplumber wrote:
| Don't forget to avoid electrolytic capacitors...
| unwind wrote:
| So, uh, is this irony? They design an electronic artifact that is
| supposed to last 1,000 years. Cool. But to check on its status,
| i.e. learn what it looks like, you have to go to ... Facebook?!
| 404mm wrote:
| Seems like Facebook has outlived the project :(
| ntrz wrote:
| As far as learning what it looks like, there are photos on the
| site too (under "The Artifact").
|
| The incorporation of Facebook is a bit silly but it's a student
| project, I guess the point was really for the students to
| consider the sort of unusual constraints and considerations
| that are required for such a long-term design. Seems unlikely
| anyone involved really expected to be updating that Facebook
| page for the next thousand years.
| logifail wrote:
| > the point was really for the students to consider the sort
| of unusual constraints and considerations that are required
| for such a long-term design
|
| Right ... and after considering those important aspects, they
| decided to send everyone to FB to check on the artefact's
| status?
|
| Talk about scoring an own goal.
| soderfoo wrote:
| Recently, I did a similar thought experiment: what's the best
| platform agnostic way to store data (photos, videos, text, etc)
| to ensure availability for 100 years?
|
| You really start to realize the permanence is mostly an illusion,
| we expect the internet or AWS to be there, but there are no
| guarantees.
| aliqot wrote:
| crystal storage, holographic data. also dna.
| carapace wrote:
| I can't find it now, but I remember reading about this guy who
| will etch your data onto a ceramic disc and store it in a old
| mine in, like, Switzerland or somewhere like that. It's not a
| lot of data per disc, but it's effectively permanent.
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| Encode the data on a gold-plated disc, attach the disc to a
| space probe, and launch the probe toward the constellation
| Telescopium.
| freitzkriesler wrote:
| My family has a handwritten journal from a family member that
| wrote it in the 1880s. It is still in good condition.
|
| I also have 100-150 year old books on koine greek (modern
| versions are trash). They're in great condition.
|
| I'd say print. Paper, hardbound copy books stored in a proper
| place so they last. Next up is stone.
| Izkata wrote:
| > stored in a proper place
|
| That'll probably get you a _lot_ longer than 100 years. We
| still have my great-grandfather 's emigration paper from
| somewhere around 1905, as well as other random papers from
| the 1920s-1930s, just stored in a shoebox.
| freitzkriesler wrote:
| Dark, dry, and away from insects is really all one can do.
| bregma wrote:
| My mother has a bible from 1607 in a shoebox. Maybe the
| shoe box is kept in a plastic bag. The previous owner, her
| uncle, kept it on a bookshelf.
|
| They sure don't make them like they used to.
| wl wrote:
| Yes, they don't make them like they used to. Including
| that shoe box, which is not made from acid free paper and
| is causing that bible to degrade as we speak. I'd urge
| your mother to move the bible to an acid-free archival
| box. They're not that expensive.
| Encrypt-Keeper wrote:
| You could at least like, get a nice fire safe box for it
| lol.
| wl wrote:
| The kind of paper is important. I've handled incunabula,
| printed books from before 1500. Maybe the paper is dirty from
| hundreds of years of handling, but the paper itself tends to
| be sturdy and supple. This continues up until the mid 1800s
| when new methods of paper making resulted in the presence of
| aluminum sulphate, which makes the paper turn brittle and
| yellow over time. It was sobering to see a volume of
| _Description de l'Egypte_ (1809-1828) side by side with a
| volume of _Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie_ (1835-45).
| They 're comparable works, elephant folios of plates
| illustrating Egyptian monuments. The former uses the older
| paper, the latter the newer paper. The newer volumes looked
| much older and the paper was brittle.
|
| If you're printing something today that you want to last for
| hundreds of years, make sure you're using acid-free paper and
| archival-grade ink.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| > Price--The materials and components making up the artifact need
| to cost less than $1000 in total. (This does not include the
| value of student labor.)
|
| Oh yes it does, arf.
| h2odragon wrote:
| Last FB update was 2013...
|
| I suspect a bad end for this item: "Possible explosive device
| found and neutralized at local school"
| dooglius wrote:
| I think I recall getting a passive mention of it on a desk
| around 2014. More likely the last student who worked on it and
| who cared to update the page graduated.
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