Not to say that it is a complete solution to
all of your concerns, but a permanent archive
of scientific articles (so far only in physics,
mathematics, and computer science) has been
started at www.arXiv.org.
It solves some of your problems:
Very long term storage. Solved to the extent that any long term storage of electronic media is.
Immutability. The arXiv does not allow anyone, the
author(s) included, to modify a submitted article. The author(s) may submit revisions in which case
the old version remains and withdraw a paper in which case it is not withdrawn from the archive
but marked as withdrawn by the author(s).
Of course, this does not guarantee full immutability as the maintainers of the archive could possibly make modifications. However, the
archive is mirrored and if it's considered a problem one could probably think up some
electronic signature scheme.
Currently this archive coexists with ordinary
journal publication. This presents an interesting
problem as when an article is published the author
usually (for the journals I am aware of at least) signs away the rights, yet the arXiv will not
remove the submitted paper. I have really no idea
of the legal ramifications of this (what will happen if the publisher demands that the paper be
retracted from the arXiv?). So far this problem has not arisen (as far as I know).
Re:Nobel Prizes for Mathematics
on
Nobel Prizes
·
· Score: 1
Well, the second suggestion can only be true
if spooky in the true sense of the word as Nobel
was born 1833 and Abel died 1829. Furthermore,
as I recall Nobel was not married.
The mathematician that is most often mentioned
in this story is Gösta Mittag-Leffler which at
least is theoretically possible as he was born
1846 and Nobel died 1896 (because of the other
problem mentioned wife is usually replaced by mistress). No evidence for this theory has been
given however. For one thing Mittag-Leffler and
Nobel were active in quite different Swedish socal
circles. In fact that in itself and the fact
that Mittag-Leffler was a somewhat controversial
person could possibly be the reason for some
dislike of mathematics from Nobel's side. Again
however no evidence exists.
The real answer is probably the first sugggestion,
Nobel was an engineer and probably thought of
mathematics as something of no possible benefit to
anyone (being a mathematician myself I of course
do not agree...).
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the second suggestion can only be true if spooky in the true sense of the word as Nobel was born 1833 and Abel died 1829. Furthermore, as I recall Nobel was not married. The mathematician that is most often mentioned in this story is Gösta Mittag-Leffler which at least is theoretically possible as he was born 1846 and Nobel died 1896 (because of the other problem mentioned wife is usually replaced by mistress). No evidence for this theory has been given however. For one thing Mittag-Leffler and Nobel were active in quite different Swedish socal circles. In fact that in itself and the fact that Mittag-Leffler was a somewhat controversial person could possibly be the reason for some dislike of mathematics from Nobel's side. Again however no evidence exists. The real answer is probably the first sugggestion, Nobel was an engineer and probably thought of mathematics as something of no possible benefit to anyone (being a mathematician myself I of course do not agree...).