HebrideanUltraTerfHecate on Nostr: https://thecritic.co.uk/escaping-the-digital-dark-age/ The Dark Ages, as we know, ...
https://thecritic.co.uk/escaping-the-digital-dark-age/
The Dark Ages, as we know, refers not to a lack of knowledge but to a lack of records. Centuries of history — from the end of the Roman Empire to the emergence of the English state — are vague and contested, recorded only in a handful of texts written many years later.
But the 7th century monks who tirelessly scribed away on vellum can be forgiven for this. They were trying their best. They lived at a time of unimaginable hardship, facing the constant threat of violence and the uncertainties of subsistence farming.
We, however, should know better about our legacy of data preservation. We operate with an unshakeable belief that the files we save now will be accessible in five, ten, or twenty years, despite having lived through multiple periods of technology obsolescence.
Punch cards. Floppy disks. Even the humble (and easily damaged) USB drive. Each advance in data storage technology brings with it the necessity to retrieve and store the information from the previous method.
But this is not just an information problem. It is a simple fact that our entire society is wholly reliant on computer systems. We saw the debilitating effect of a cyberattack on NHS computer systems earlier this year, and it is not implausible that a state or rogue actor could cause a complete societal breakdown by targeting the computer networks which manage our banking, transport, security, and communication systems.
There is also a darker implication. Digital media can be easily manipulated without there being a record of the change. Many films and TV shows, when released to streaming, often have slightly different music (due to licensing issues) or, if they are somewhat dated, have been selectively edited at the whims of the moral scolds who think audiences are incapable of viewing media in the context in which they were created. Paraphrasing Orwell might be a little trite, but it’s true: rewriting every record becomes a lot easier if you leave no paper trail.
The Dark Ages, as we know, refers not to a lack of knowledge but to a lack of records. Centuries of history — from the end of the Roman Empire to the emergence of the English state — are vague and contested, recorded only in a handful of texts written many years later.
But the 7th century monks who tirelessly scribed away on vellum can be forgiven for this. They were trying their best. They lived at a time of unimaginable hardship, facing the constant threat of violence and the uncertainties of subsistence farming.
We, however, should know better about our legacy of data preservation. We operate with an unshakeable belief that the files we save now will be accessible in five, ten, or twenty years, despite having lived through multiple periods of technology obsolescence.
Punch cards. Floppy disks. Even the humble (and easily damaged) USB drive. Each advance in data storage technology brings with it the necessity to retrieve and store the information from the previous method.
But this is not just an information problem. It is a simple fact that our entire society is wholly reliant on computer systems. We saw the debilitating effect of a cyberattack on NHS computer systems earlier this year, and it is not implausible that a state or rogue actor could cause a complete societal breakdown by targeting the computer networks which manage our banking, transport, security, and communication systems.
There is also a darker implication. Digital media can be easily manipulated without there being a record of the change. Many films and TV shows, when released to streaming, often have slightly different music (due to licensing issues) or, if they are somewhat dated, have been selectively edited at the whims of the moral scolds who think audiences are incapable of viewing media in the context in which they were created. Paraphrasing Orwell might be a little trite, but it’s true: rewriting every record becomes a lot easier if you leave no paper trail.