Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/31

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Subject: [Leica] Drive in 2056
From: lrzeitlin at aol.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)
Date: Tue May 31 09:21:37 2005

Max writes:

<<Yes, but I bet if you find your Dad's old hard drive in a closet in 2056,
you won't be able to do this with the files:>>

============

I guess you mean to imply that film technology is mature and will last 
longer than digital technology. Perhaps you are right, but film 
emulsions eventually deteriorate and die, mildew, flake, and 
disintegrate over time depending on the care taken in storage. It has 
been estimated that 80% of of the original negatives of all feature 
films made during the days of the silents have been lost. But the virtue 
of digital is that it can be transferred from one generation to the next 
without lost of quality. A motivated archivist can keep digital material 
up to date as long as necessary. I have digital material which has been 
transferred through at least 5 different generations of digital storage 
technology. It is just as good or as bad as it was when it was new. Long 
after the film and paper of your PAW has turned to dust, you will be 
able to recover the image from some 22nd century Internet - if we don't 
destroy the world before then.

Larry Z