archive.ph
archive.ph

This is something that keeps me worried at night. Unlike other historical artefacts like pottery, vellum writing, or stone tablets, information on the Internet can just blink into nonexistence when the server hosting it goes offline. This makes it difficult for future anthropologists who want to study our history and document the different Internet epochs. For my part, I always try to send any news article I see to an archival site (like archive.ph) to help collectively preserve our present so it can still be seen by others in the future.

  • Art [he/him] 🌈@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    I sadly conclude that to prevent the harm of many people by individual in power I need to allow a danger to an individual by archiving everything that is possible to archive.

    You just reminded me of a passage from Sapiens:

    “Yet it is wrong to judge thousands of years of history from the perspective of today. A much more representative viewpoint is that of a three-year-old girl dying from malnutrition in first-century China because her father’s crops have failed. Would she say, ‘I am dying from malnutrition, but in 2,000 years, people will have plenty to eat and live in big air-conditioned houses, so my suffering is a worthwhile sacrifice’?”

    I don’t think sacrificing other people for some imaginary tomorrow is worthwhile, to be honest.

    • Ludrol@szmer.infoEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I don’t think sacrificing other people for some imaginary tomorrow is worthwhile, to be honest.

      If this statement was without context I would 100% agree.

      Bur reality isn’t black and white. The consequences of this particular case are totally preventable without changing any rules about archiving.

      Your imaginary danger exists the same way as my imaginary future. But you won’t change place of living due to unfavorable cost benefit calculation but I also calculate cost benefit for the whole of humanity in keeping archives.

      I think you are scared of loosing everything that you build up in your town. (Friends, family, house) due to to something that isn’t happend yet. And you would secrafice a lot just to not feel scared of being forcefully driven out.

      But I don’t know you and might be wrong in the details but definitely I can Imagine someone in similar situation.