Film Lover's Lament

In article ,
no_name wrote:
Gregory L. Hansen wrote:

In article ,
no_name wrote:


But yes, someone with the intellectial resources of DaVinci could
probably figure out how read a microfiche, if for no other reason, that
when you look at one, you can see that there's something there.


Well, this line of the discussion is kind of silly, anyway. If you have
microfiche to read, then there will be optical instruments to read it.

Not necessarily. The whole point being argued is whether the tools to
read the storage format will exist at some future date. It's entirely
possible that in a post-holacaust world technology might be beaten so
far down that the tools to read the data might not exist even if the
storage media survived.

What makes you think that the *microfiche* will be there to be read, then?
Lenses are more durable than microfiche is.


My point is that microfiche will require less complex tools to read than
CD-ROM, and if the tools are not readily available for some period of
time the microfiche is more likely to survive until tools become
available again.

I certainly have no argument about that.


They'll be sitting near the microfiche. If any people survive at all,
then there will be people that know something about making optical
instruments from base materials. We don't have to pretend that the
concepts of telescopes, microscopes, and grinding out lenses with grit and
peices of glass hasn't occured to anyone.

OTOH, some time might elapse before such skills are needed or before
conditions allow such luxuries as telescope making.

And when the time comes, they just might pull a few things out of the ol'
garage or basement.

How complete do we expect this destruction to be, and why would we expect
humans to survive it if their artifacts don't?

--
"Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside to be used as a
latrine. You shall keep a trowel in your equipment and with it, when you
go outside to ease nature, you shall first dig a hole and afterward cover
up your excrement." -- Deuteronomy 23:13-14

In article ,
no_name wrote:
Gregory L. Hansen wrote:

Like scholarly textbooks and journals in research libraries at
universities and corporations all over the world, plus works of a more
popular nature in branch libraries all over the world, and private
collections of materials in homes and merchandise inventories at
booksellers? We don't have enough bombs to get all of the libraries.
When you go for the encyclopedia article on the internal combustion
engine you can pick up a microfiche reader while you're there.

Where you going to plug it in?

If you had a microfiche reader but no electricity, I'll bet you could find
a way to cast light in there. The technology required was pretty well
developed by about 2000 BC.

--
"You're not as dumb as you look. Or sound. Or our best testing
indicates." -- Monty Burns to Homer Simpson

Gregory L. Hansen wrote:

In article ,
no_name wrote:

Gregory L. Hansen wrote:


In article ,
no_name wrote:


But yes, someone with the intellectial resources of DaVinci could
probably figure out how read a microfiche, if for no other reason, that
when you look at one, you can see that there's something there.


Well, this line of the discussion is kind of silly, anyway. If you have
microfiche to read, then there will be optical instruments to read it.

Not necessarily. The whole point being argued is whether the tools to
read the storage format will exist at some future date. It's entirely
possible that in a post-holacaust world technology might be beaten so
far down that the tools to read the data might not exist even if the
storage media survived.


What makes you think that the *microfiche* will be there to be read, then?
Lenses are more durable than microfiche is.


My point is that microfiche will require less complex tools to read than
CD-ROM, and if the tools are not readily available for some period of
time the microfiche is more likely to survive until tools become
available again.


I certainly have no argument about that.


They'll be sitting near the microfiche. If any people survive at all,
then there will be people that know something about making optical
instruments from base materials. We don't have to pretend that the
concepts of telescopes, microscopes, and grinding out lenses with grit and
peices of glass hasn't occured to anyone.

OTOH, some time might elapse before such skills are needed or before
conditions allow such luxuries as telescope making.


And when the time comes, they just might pull a few things out of the ol'
garage or basement.

How complete do we expect this destruction to be, and why would we expect
humans to survive it if their artifacts don't?


As I said earlier, speaking of a post-holacaust world ...

"it's unlikely even that level of technology would be retained, assuming
it didn't turn into another global extinction event."