Re: [ARSCLIST] When you die...

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Nolan" <DaveNolanAudio@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:53:06 -0400, Jim Lindner <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >I am sure I am missing something here - but if these are published
> >recordings - that have been digitized by others or preserved by
> >others because they are NOT unique - and available as access copies
> >elsewhere (on the net or not) and the music is available elsewhere -
> >and these particular recordings  were not owned by someone famous -
> >or have some artifactual value for some other strange reason - then
> >the value of them other then to yourself as a thing you collect
> >because you like to collect things is - - - what exactly?
>
> Three words:
> Preservation through dissemination
> The more copies that survive, well, the more copies that survive...
> By the above logic, we would only need one copy of any book ever published,
> because theoretically in the magic digital future every inhabitant of planet
> earth will be able to access that one universally available digitized copy.
>
> Unless of course that magic digital repository did not make that content
> universally available for free - which is sadly closer to reality than any
> benevolent Utopian analysis that one might wish to imagine.
>
> The digital version of "preservation through dissemination" - an incredibly
> recent phenomenon - is largely the work of overlapping networks of
> collectors who are thankfully ignoring copyright in an effort to preserve
> our cultural and intellectual heritage for future generations.  Thank
> goodness they are preserving digital objects regardless of short-sighted
> copyright laws that, if followed, would virtually guarantee the
> disappearance of over 90% of the world's music and literature.  One can only
> hope that their digital collections survive - and that people who preserve
> and hand down original "artifacts" such as record albums are equally lucky.
>
> Most institutions in earth's history - public or private - do not have a
> terribly great track record of lasting long enough to ensure long-term
> survival of their collections.  I don't think any of us can predict what
> will be here in 200 years - who's digital repository will have survived,
> who's "artifacts" will have survived.  I only know that I feel incredibly
> privileged to have studied actual copies of books from the 1600's and 1700's
> - and I wish I could shake the hand of the person who felt it important
> enough to take good care of that object so that someone like me might be
> able to appreciate it many years later.
>
> I would hate to think that in 100 years that people could only see (or in
> our case hear) a very few original objects in museums, rather than having
> them more readily accessible to see, touch, and learn from up close.
>
One thing which we can safely assume will survive (into near-eternity...?!),
barring some "uber-cataclysmic" end to our planet...are shellac
phonorecords...?!
I have 78's which are a century and more old...and they still seem to play as
well (or as poorly...?!) as they ever did...!

Admittedly, they ARE fragile...flammable...and subject to damage by any type
of alcohol...BUT, if not dropped, hurled at someone/thing, or their archival
storage facility doesn't burn to the ground (see under "San Diego"...?!) they
appear to be effectively indestructible. In fact, I suspect vinyl phonorecords
are nearly as "eternal"...?!

How many human collectors/accumulators of the above still survive centuries/
millennia from know is open to question...however, the artifacts themselves
will probably still exist.

However, there is one "worst-case scenario"...! Suppose that Homo Sapiens
manage to end not only their existence as a species...but that of all/most
other resident ife-forms as well...either on one grand nuclear finale, or via
mismanagement of the planet's ecology...! Further, suppose that the remains
of the planet are eventually explored by extra-terrestrial investigators...!
BUT,
these beings are blissfully unaware of even the EXISTENCE of sonic forms
of communication! So...they find the still-extant 78's, LP's, mebbe even a
few CD's...but have NO idea what their function(s) was/were...?!

Steven C. Barr