Digital BW, The Print

Peter Nelson wrote:
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, The Wogster 
> <wogsterca@y...> wrote:>  So we need a 
> 
>>storage method that either uses more stable dyes, or a completely 
>>dye-less process.
> 
> 
> The problem with this whole discussion is that it focusses on the 
> technology - whether it's dyes, file formats, magnetic -vs- optical, 
> holographic -vs- linear, etc.    I'm going to guess that 95% of the 
> people in this forum are geeks and nerds of one sort or another (I'm 
> a hw/sw engineer), and human nature is a common geek/nerd blind spot.
> 
> But the PROBLEM isn't TECHNOlogical, it's PSYCHOlogical.   It has 
> little to do with technology and lots to do with human nature.   Any 
> archival solution that depends on active maintenance or intervention 
> on a regular basis will fail because someone will lose interest or 
> forget or will hand off a shoebox to someone without telling them 
> they have to update it every once in awhile, or they won't have the 
> technical skill, or they will dutifully DO the conversion but there 
> will be a bug in the conversion program that no one will realize 
> until 10 years later when someone else tries to do the NEXT 
> conversion, or they will guess wrong about what the next standard 
> format will be and convert it to something dead-end. 

This is the key, right here, currently though there are 3 schools of 
thought:

1) People who find it easy to update every few years, yes they find it 
easy, but as you have already stated, future generations may not.  These 
images may not survive the next 50 years.

2) The opposite, people who bemoan and wale that ALL digital media, will 
forever have this problem, technology will never resolve this problem, 
so digital imaging technology should be made illegal.

3) People who expect that within the next 20 years or so, a storage 
media will be discovered that will store digital data, inexpensively 
over the long haul.  There is a permanent method that exists now, take a 
disc made of pure gold, burn holes into the surface with a hot laser. 
Since gold is in it's natural form already, it will not corrode, it's 
just expensive for the amount of information stored.

W