From Alex Reynolds Sent Tue, Mar 2nd 1999, 22:12
From Alex Reynolds Sent Tue, Mar 2nd 1999, 22:12
>The Dead Sea Scrolls were written on homemade paper 2k years ago, and
>they're still readable for the most part. One can only hope that 'modern'
>digital media will eventually reach that standard of usability in one tenth
>that amount of time.
This will never happen, at least not between our lifetime and our
childrens' lifetimes.
The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), or any other document on parchment-based
medium, can only store so many (or little, for that matter) bits of
information.
Generally speaking, the amount of data that can be stored on a given medium
is directly proportional to the technical complexity/storage capacity of
the medium and/or the technical requirements of the "reader hardware."
The more technically adept you need to be in order to read/decode a
document, the more complex the document is likely to be. (And you usually
get more storage capacity in the bargain.)
CDs store a lot more bits of information than the DSS, but Citizen XFD321B
from the year 2308 would need to know a lot about optics, fast Fourier
transforms, etc. in order to recover the binary data from a CD. It's safe
to say that these fairly advanced concepts didn't exist back in the days of
the Essenes.
DNA is another good example, even though the genetic code is very simple
(quaternary instead of the CD's binary). To read the simple code of the DNA
('read' in a biochemical sense) you need structurally-complex
protein/nucleotide "readers" to translate the DNA script into something
useful (more protein). This 'hardware' took billions of years to evolve.
The DSS do not convey as much info as a compact disc or a strand of DNA,
but then, you don't need much more than a pair of eyeballs to at least get
started. Humans already have this visual 'hardware' built into them.
A remarkable (r)evolution in language, culture and technology would be
needed in order to compress the data of a CD into the storage space of a
parchment, with the same level of 'readibility' or 'usability' as the
parchment using only natural human hardware (eyes, ears, skin, etc.).
In music's case, a revolution in staff notation is one possibility, but
dedicated training is required in order to read sheet music and 'hear' the
music in one's mind.
Mass culture and its technology would need to redefine communication and
thought -- how we teach children to communicate and think -- for the
average Joe Sixpack to make use of such a hypothetical storage medium. Joey
would need to put the football down and learn to 'read' again.
Given our taste for increasingly dumber cultural experiences (Puff Daddy,
NBC sitcoms, alternative rock stations, etc.) a more likely and cynical
future is that something analogous to a six-disc changer is built into our
skulls, tapping directly into the auditory section of our brains and
bypassing the eyes and ears entirely.
Come to think of it, only the rich will have six-disc changers. The poor
will get radios slapped into their heads so that they can hear beer
commercials 24/7 along with the music. The well-to-do will get to choose
when they want to pop in a disc or two. (Apologies to PKD)
-A.
__________________________________________________________________________
Alex Reynolds E xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxxxx.xxx
UPenn : SAS Computing : Biology Dist Support V +1 215 573 2818
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/biology/ F +1 215 898 8780
'The central message of Buddhism is not "every man for himself"!' -- Wanda