Information Loss from Technological Progress

18th International School on Condensed Matter Physics: "Challenges of Nanoscale Science: Theory, Materials, Applications"

Townsend, P.D.^1

Physics Building, University of Sussex, Brighton

BN 1 9QH, United Kingdom^1

关键词: Commercial pressure;    Electronic systems;    Information loss;    Interactive music systems;    Rapid communication;    Storage capacity;    Systems and software;    Technological progress;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/558/1/012002/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/558/1/012002

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Progress in electronics and optics offers faster computers, and rapid communication via the internet that is matched by ever larger and evolving storage systems. Instinctively one assumes that this must be totally beneficial. However advances in software and storage media are progressing in ways which are frequently incompatible with earlier systems and the economics and commercial pressures rarely guarantee total compatibility with earlier systems. Instead, the industries actively choose to force the users to purchase new systems and software. Thus we are moving forward with new technological variants that may have access to only the most recent systems and we will have lost earlier alternatives. The reality is that increased processing speed and storage capacity are matched by an equally rapid decline in the access and survival lifetime of older information. This pattern is not limited to modern electronic systems but is evident throughout history from writing on stone and clay tablets to papyrus and paper. It is equally evident in image systems from painting, through film, to magnetic tapes and digital cameras. In sound recording we have variously progressed from wax discs to vinyl, magnetic tape and CD formats. In each case the need for better definition and greater capacity has forced the earlier systems into oblivion. Indeed proposed interactive music systems could similarly relegate music CDs to specialist collections. The article will track some of the examples and discuss the consequences as well as noting that this information loss is further compounded by developments in language and changes in cultural views of different societies.