Well Steven,
That book has already been written by David Macaulay, "Motel of the
Mysteries".
These are some quotes:
In the 40th century the North American continent is covered with 200
feet of detritus from "pollutans literatus" and "pollutans gravitas"
(junk mail and air pollution). The St. Louis Gateway Arch is useful
for kissing for luck under the arch (now three feet above the ground)
and the penthouse levels of the Bigapple extend like new Stonehenge
monoliths from the ground.
Into this milieu enters Howard Carson who, like the Howard Carter of
the early 20th century, stumbles into an archaeological funerary site
and opens the door into ... "wonderful things."
Each part of the "Toot'NC'mon" Motel is catalogued and fitted
carefully into Carter's map of the site as a tomb and funeral
repository. Even the Hot and Cold water initials on the "water
trumpets" are taken by Carter as meaningful, namely, as his initials.
The shrine, "carved out of a single piece of porcelain" is used to
pray to their gods in song. The famous (because it appears on a paper
ribbon sealing the shrine) chant is worked out phonetically by Carter
to be "Sanitized Before Using" .
The altar is a TV set on a dresser - the drawers are for depositing
offerings for the gods, Carter postulates.
The drawings of the book and the author's sense of humor reminds me
of Glenn Baxter. In one full-page drawing, Carter is shown making
shadow pictures of a rabbit with his hand on the "tomb wall."
By the time I was nearing the end of Motel of the Mysteries I was
wondering what the point of the book was, but in the last section,
there it was: reproduced on a matched set of bookends was the Sacred
Point!
A good book to place on the coffee table or to keep handy near your
favorite sacred shrine.
I think this puts a bit perspective on our fears of the future losses,
either humorous or otherwise.
Rod Stephens
Family Theater Productions
andy kolovos wrote: steven austin wrote:
> Just a thought:
>
> Does anyone make digital audio copies from their archival sound
sources,
> then store the data as code printouts? Cards, paper, whatever?
>
> I would think with digital information technology, we don't really need
> to rely on tape or laser-encoded discs for archival storage when it
> would be so much more efficient to store the information as digital
> code, ready at any time to be translated through software into audio
> sound. A hard copy of the code would avoid the degradation that all
> storage media suffer and always offer a first-generation master of the
> original source recovery, where a CD-R or a tape would be subject to
the
> condition of the transport media.
>
> Know what I mean?
>
> Steven Austin
>
I've played around with a sci-fi story about this kind of thing. I
imagine a future where there are no more computers, but reams and reams
of printed code spat out in the last days before the machines stopped.
In the far-flung days long after the cataclysm, a special group of
scholars, the digital-crypto-paleographers, have been trained using the
Rosetta stone of the period (a stack of accidentally preserved "For
Dummies" books) to draw meaning from these lines and lines of digits.
In his monk-like cell, our scholar-hero, 47B-Ylba-C, pours over pages
and pages of code by the light of a glowing fungus. After a lifetime of
combing over a document determined to be from a single cohesive unit of
knowledge, 47B-Ylba-C has his eureka moment: "Aha!" he says, "The
ancients were wise to cleverly convolute their secrets!" He breathes
deeply and cries out through the open doorway, "Brothers! Sisters! I
have broken the code, that terrible, difficult, once-thought
impenetrable code that we have determined protects that most valuable
and secret of ancient knowledge!" He pauses before the gathered throng
to flex his outstretched fingers in the ritual motions of the ancient
Code Generators. His fellow scholars flex in return. "I have
vindicated the memory of the great scholar 7-Tubar-X founder of our
sect!" A gasp erupts from the collected throng who begin to madly flex
their outstretched fingers in excitement. "I have penetrated that most
puzzling of the ancient cryptograms!" He pauses for emphasis. "Yes my
brethren, I have unlocked the secret to ATRAC!" Astonished gasps and
cries of joy fill the chamber. He glances about the room with his eyes
afire. "Behold! No more shall the most occult secrets of the greatest
of the ancient wise-priestess seers be kept from us! No more will we be
locked out of the wisdom of Brittney Spears!"
--
*********************************
Andy Kolovos
Archivist/Folklorist
Vermont Folklife Center
P.O. Box 442
Middlebury, VT 05753
(802) 388-4964
akolovos @ vermontfolklifecenter.org
http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org