So here we have a two edged sword. One edge is access to day to day data that, for example, medieval scholar would probably sell his next of kin for. But the other edge is that it is probably censored, or filtered or even deliberately destroyed. Irony is an insufficient term for this.
It give a little ding to my heart when loved ones gone before show up on my Facebook birthday list. At my age there are quite a few who have gone ahead.
If you think the Nth generation kids are gonna want to take their own time looking back at conversations that occurred a hunnert years ago...I'd bet they would not spend 20 minutes doing that. Would I want to go spend days and days and days reading everyday conversations from my ancestors from 1880? WGAS?, unless you are a historian or and novel writer. The rest of the planet won't GAS.
Don't be so sure; James Lileks spends a lot of time reposting old newspaper advertisements and articles. The past is a different country; many times the trivia from decades ago can well be more illuminating than you might think.
Yes, I agree. I didn't mean to be rude - probably sounded like that. I apologize. You guys are writers - and a lot of what you read/write/say IS memorable - perhaps even unto the ages. But I have lotsa TB's of old emails/docs/letters that even my own kids/grandkids don't GAS about. My point was that so many of us are so dumbed down that I suspect that it will be rare for the crap in my old hard drives to even be worth looking at by ANYONE. And the kids in the 2070's will be playing games on the moon, and won't GAS about a what their great-great grandma in 1970 was saying to her boyfriend back then. Generally.
So here we have a two edged sword. One edge is access to day to day data that, for example, medieval scholar would probably sell his next of kin for. But the other edge is that it is probably censored, or filtered or even deliberately destroyed. Irony is an insufficient term for this.
It give a little ding to my heart when loved ones gone before show up on my Facebook birthday list. At my age there are quite a few who have gone ahead.
If you think the Nth generation kids are gonna want to take their own time looking back at conversations that occurred a hunnert years ago...I'd bet they would not spend 20 minutes doing that. Would I want to go spend days and days and days reading everyday conversations from my ancestors from 1880? WGAS?, unless you are a historian or and novel writer. The rest of the planet won't GAS.
Well okay then.
Don't be so sure; James Lileks spends a lot of time reposting old newspaper advertisements and articles. The past is a different country; many times the trivia from decades ago can well be more illuminating than you might think.
Yes, I agree. I didn't mean to be rude - probably sounded like that. I apologize. You guys are writers - and a lot of what you read/write/say IS memorable - perhaps even unto the ages. But I have lotsa TB's of old emails/docs/letters that even my own kids/grandkids don't GAS about. My point was that so many of us are so dumbed down that I suspect that it will be rare for the crap in my old hard drives to even be worth looking at by ANYONE. And the kids in the 2070's will be playing games on the moon, and won't GAS about a what their great-great grandma in 1970 was saying to her boyfriend back then. Generally.
I've been going through some of my family's stuff, and surprisingly enough, I *am* interested in what my great-grandma was saying to her boyfriend.
While a lot of stuff *is* ephemera, it's really hard to figure out which is truly ephemera, and which gives a window into the past.
A big enough pile of epherema becomes data.