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Wikipedia and the End of Archeology
Andy Updegrove writes "Far too much attention has been paid to whether or not the Wikipedia is accurate enough. The greater significance of the Wikipedia today, and even more for those in the future, is its reality as the most detailed, comprehensive, concise, culturally-sensitive record of how humanity understands itself at any precise moment in time. Moreover, with its multiple language versions, it also demonstrates how different cultures understand the same facts, historical events and trends at the same time. Today, archaeologists are doing digs to understand how people lived only 150 years ago, making guesses based on the random bits and pieces of peoples' lives that they find. In the future, that won't be necessary, as archaeologists are replaced by anthropologists that mine this treasure-trove for data."
Either in a landfill or in data stores, the archaeologists are going to have to dig thru an awful lot of spam.
Actually, anthopoligists of the future will probably data-mine our email... and conclude that we were a people obsessed with p3n1s enlargement and herbal v14gra!