Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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In a thousand years teachers will have a hard time explaining the origins of one of the most dangerous and ill-conceived weapons ever invented: the lightsaber (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 7 months ago by DeepThought42 to c/showerthoughts

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[–] Dasus 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We have no form of long term preservation of information any more.

Which keeps better, paper or a hard drive? Exposed to the elements, that is. A literal metal disc or a collection of paper fibers?

The sheer amount of copies of Star Wars in all it's forms is mind-boggling, and again, literally global. We also have people and institutions dedicated to archiving significant things.

There are very few imaginable situations which would lead to humanity losing the concept of what a light saber is.

Like please, propose one.

This is unlike earlier cultures which stored information on physical media which continue to exist long after the culture that created it is gone.

You're seriously suggesting cultures 3000 years ago preserved information better than we do? Seriously?

Simply untrue.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Can you read data off a floppy disk today? How many others can? How many in fifty years can? The point is that left alone our physical media of today is not compatible in the future because you need specialty tools to read it.

Anyone can pickup and read a piece of paper or a rock with carvings in it. The point is that not only does the media need to survive, but the means to make use of it needs to survive as well.

That is the key issue with technology today. Someone needs to keep loving the data from floppy to zip drive to thumb drive to hard drive to whatever is next or it's lost.

[–] Dasus 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

How many in fifty years can?

Why on Earth would we lose the ability to read simple magnetic storage?

Yes, I can read data off floppy disk today due to having a floppy drive somewhere in my storage. And even if I didn't, it'd cost like at most 50 euros to get even a new reader. Get one off Amazon for 20 bucks.

It's rather trivial. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_storage

And what data exactly are there on floppy disks that isn't on other media? Like... globally culturally significant data.

Can you read ancient Greek? I can't, but I still know about the Trojan Horse. I can't read Biblical Hebrew, but I know about the ten commandments. How?