tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15626592.post112464719640410901..comments2023-10-08T09:45:20.079-04:00Comments on Write to Right: Rotting CDs, Rotting LibrariesGriselhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18335613582709575850noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15626592.post-1125145760582535222005-08-27T08:29:00.000-04:002005-08-27T08:29:00.000-04:00I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how...I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how we feel there are few people that really value books. I'm sure it had a lot to do with my mother who taught me respect for them. When I was little and wanted to build a race car track or as a parachute (shows how young I was) she would scold me.<BR/><BR/>My friend said that he had a similar respect instilled in him, but it was mixed cultural and family because he partly grew up in India. He says that there if you accidentally step on a book you perform this quick little ritual that to my ignorant eyes looks something like a Christian crossing themselves. I assumed that he meant when it was a holy book and he said, yes, <I>all</I> books.<BR/><BR/><BR/>But to play devil's advocate, the digital life of something can be indefinite because it can be copied with zero loss. Yes, the CD will expire, but the MP3 can be copied from hard drive to solid state to crystal (possibly the next digital storage device). There are experiments already with putting chips in brains, we may be able to zap virtual libraries into heads someday or at least let you easily memorize the book you just read.<BR/><BR/>A friend was telling me about his home network and how he has a central storage device where he's sharing the family's music. His daughter stores her teeny-bob, but finds his jazz right next to it and he's caught her listening to it. Maybe music will be better preserved by the fact that in a digital world it isn't your parent's dusty old music, but simply a different folder on the same hard drive. Yes, there's no longer the exciting trip into the storage area where you blow the dust off and discover a treasure, but for some young people that exciting trip is a repulsive story. For them they may pass on music that the dust made them think was worthless.<BR/><BR/>I'm just looking for the positive spin. I mean, I do believe that a digital version of the constitution <I>could</I> last forever whereas the paper will not, but I as I wrote this I kept thinking of the excitement and wonder I felt when I found my dad's old 78s in a dusty box or when I carefully turned the yellowed pages of old family books in my relative's attic.ollavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15416445917952217148noreply@blogger.com