"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
...
Leaving aside any of the philosophical and semantic
aspects of his argument, there's one glaring error in his
argument. He asserts that because digital formats change
(true) that digital images made now will become unreadable
in the future.

Now, if one is discussing images made on physical media
(film), there *is* the distinct possibility that the image
will be rendered unusable through time because of physical
degradation of the image. (Witness movies on nitrate stock
and color negatives or slides with unstable dyes.)

And in the case of digital media, there is always the
possibility that the image will become unreadable because
of *physical* degradation of the media (tape, magnetic
disc, optical disc, etc.)

However, assuming that the *physical media* remains
intact, it is very, very unlikely that any
digitally-recorded image will ever become unreadable in
the future.

I do know something about this, having worked for a
computer media conversion and duplication company for 13
years. In that one small company alone, there exists the
ability to read many obsolete digital formats (meaning
both the equuipment and the software to decipher the data
and deliver it in a usable form): specifically, 9-track
tape (remember the old movies with the computers with the
spinning tape drives?) and floppy disks, including the old
8" monsters.

I'm confident that even data on paper tape could be read;
someone, somewhere, has a paper-tape reader connected to
his S-100 system (running CP/M), or some other moldy
oldie. And if not, a reader could pretty easily be cobbled
together.

The point is that humanity doesn't collectively forget its
own obsolete recording formats, just because something new
comes along. Sure, the old formats fall into disuse and
become difficult to use, but not impossible.

Why, in this very house, I can right now play 78 rpm
records if I like, or 45s even. I can also read all of my
old 5-1/4" floppies on my computer.

I'd like someone to try to name a data storage format
(either physical medium or data format) that they think
cannot be read today.


The oldest media you are dealing with is probably the 9
track data recordings. How old are they? probably not more
than about forty years, if that. In order to read them you
need to have the transport, heads that match the format, and
know what the format is. This is quite different from
"reading" still photographs, which requires no equipment
other than the eye, even for negatives. Motion pictures are
more difficult if one requires reproducing the motion but
the subject matter is also visiblel to the eye with no help
(other than perhaps a magnifyer). Also viewer and projector
technology has not changed fundamentally in over a century
and is still used.
More difficult will be the recovery of data from formats
as common as floppy discs. It will probably be possible but
will require the construction of suitable reproducers. While
a floppy drive is very cheap now it won't be when they are
no longer made and must be constructed as a single specialty
item.
The fact is that recovery of archived material on
photographic film requires little specialized equipment
while digital data will always require a lot of specialized
equipment.
It is difficult to predict the future of technology.
Usually, predictions are based on extrapolating from current
technology but there is no way to predict a "break through"
based on new scientific discovery. Science and technology
are different in a very fundamental way: science is the
discovery of natural laws or principles; technology is the
application of known laws or principles. It is also possible
that computer technology will eventually reach some sort of
equilibrium. It is still a new art (IMHO) which means it is
changeing rapidly, but that rate of change may itself change
in the future. Here again is an unpredictible factor because
we don't know what discoveries may be made which may
accelerate change.
Certainly digital archiving will become more reliable in
the future because it has to in order to be useful.
Other forms of electronic storage than digital have also
suffered from rapid change in technology. When I started in
the TV business 2 inch segmented scan video tape recorders
were common. Now they are found only in specialty dub houses
for the purpose of recovering material recorded on that
format. The example of a 78 disc is trivial. Cylinder
recordings are perhaps a more apt example of old technology
which yields recoverable data but cylinder recordings were
never used for long and are comparitively few against disc
recordings.
Now, having said all this basically I disagree with the
original premise that electonic images are not photography.
They obviously are despite any argument about longevity.


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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA