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Microsoft's "Immortal Computing" Project
SeenOnSlash writes "Microsoft is working on a project they call 'immortal computing' which would let people store digital information in durable physical artifacts and other forms to be preserved and revealed to future generations, and maybe even to future civilizations. The artifacts would be designed to make the process of accessing the information clear with instructions in multiple languages or hieroglyphics. In one possible use, messages for descendants or interactive holograms might be stored on tombstones. The project was revealed when their patent application recently became public."
One of my aunts did a Civil War battleground tour, recently, on the tail of visiting relatives in Pennsylvania, and sent me a really neat letter about it. I have a really peculiar middle name, a gift from my great-grandfather, and she managed to find out that he got it from his grandfather, who enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment about two months before the battle of Gettysburg and died, there. Found his name on the monument and everything. I thought this was one of the coolest things I'd heard in a while, just because I personally feel so little connection with history or my ancestors.
It got me thinking about all the OTHER things I wish I could know about them. These were coal-mining Irish folks, not so much for the reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, so they didn't make a lot of efforts to record anything, at least not that's survived the years. In the other branches of my family, the more recent immigrants from Croatia and Spain, we have a few stories and a little jewelry, but past 1880 or so, there's just nothing.
I want to know more. I want to know what they thought about the current events of their world (why DID my great-great-great grandfather enlist, anyway? ). What did they think of their jobs, and their families, and about why they were in their places in the world? Did they wonder what I'd be like? What did they wonder most about the future, and did they care?
So... tell me, Slashdot, on this fine, dark, cold Tuesday morning: If this technology, or something similar, had been available, what do you wish your ancestors would have left behind for you to read, or watch videos of, or hear? And why?
I doubt they'll lose interest. Sounds more like a compelling challenge to unlock the "mysteries of the past". A hard to read document is all the more interesting to a curious mind. In a few years a Word document may seem like digital garbage but add another 400 years to that and it will be insight into today's society, no matter how trivial. We do it all the time with ancient documents.
parasight.de
Very true... One of the guys originally involved in managing one of the world's largest USENET servers in days of yore, was talking about the decisions he and others made as to what was worthy of being moved to a long-term archive. He now deeply regrets preserving primarily technical discussion while discarding reals of messages about abortion, women's rights, Communism, and _many_ other historically significant issues from the very time they were still living issues. Just try searching Google Groups for any of these subject with a time constraint that puts you back to the dawn of USENET. However, a search for say the eccentricities of some mod to System V on some peculiar piece of hardware will probably have survived.
Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this;
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh;
Stop, traveler, and piss.
-- Lord Byron, on Lord Castlereagh
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The key concept is the interactivity. The idea of interacting with a dead relative on a borthday is not so much creepy as it is incredibly sad. The primary reason we're able to carry on as normal people is the natural fade of intense emotions over time.
If you were continually reminded every year of some tragic loss, with the same intensity as when it first occurred, would that be a benefit or detriment to your life? This is not a choice to be made lightly, and it's certainly not the promotional use case I'd like to hear if it does evolve into a product-service.
-BA
I know you're trolling, but just for the record:
.doc format if you want users of prior versions to be able to use them.
Scenario 1. There's a free Word viewer you can download if you don't want to pay for Office.
Scenario 2. You can still save Word documents in good old
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.