When the apocalypse comes (5 May, 2022)

[aardvark_admin]

This column is archived at: https://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2022/0505.shtml

Sorry about the late publication today -- medical issues

Anyway... are we taking enough care to ensure that the sum of mankind's knowledge will still be accessible in the event of some apocalyptic event such as nuclear war, meteorite strike or CME?

If we end up moving all our knowledge and information to computer-based systems (as we are rapidly doing) then do we not significantly compromise our ability, as a society, to recover from such a catastrophic and potentially existential event?

And, with much of the newly published content going straight to the cloud, bypassing print altogether, would this be lost completely?

Where are our real-world backups?

[Perry]

Might've been Phill who mentioned, long, long ago, that "the cloud" was just someone else's computer.

I wonder how many computer, tablet, phone users actually appreciate that and understand its ramifications?

Imagine if some super-hackers turned it off, somehow?

[rossnixon]

That reminds me. Regardless of how long we hold onto all our collected information, God says it's eventually going to be forgotten.
"For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind." - Isaiah 65:17

There goes my carefully collected 'family tree' database of thousands of people.

[Kiwiiano]

Christchurch is still has good stocks of books, several well thought-of book shops, a thriving second-hand book community, a huge central library and 22 suburban libraries. Personally we have probably a thousand or so plus an ancient copy of Encyclopedia Britannica that lurks at the back of a wardrobe. I periodically consider biffing it but the thought of the aforementioned apocalypse always changes my mind, just in case. I should add to the small collection of Prepper and technical books for the same reason.

Of course, if the apocalypse comes as rapidly rising sea levels there may be a big problem for our books in that the high tide mark for the Avon River is only 800m from the Central Library and several of the other locations are on the east side of the city. That may all be academic if we hit one or other tipping point, the worst-case high water mark for Christchurch is 40km inland.

Meanwhile Our Glorious Leaders are getting down to it, facing the facts, disregarding the election cycles and boldly considering what ChCh will be like by 2050 with a population of 1M. Yeah, right...

[Kiwiiano]

Might've been Phill who mentioned, long, long ago, that "the cloud" was just someone else's computer.

I wonder how many computer, tablet, phone users actually appreciate that and understand its ramifications?

Imagine if some super-hackers turned it off, somehow?

That's why I always keep my 'cloud' somewhere I can see it, with duplicates in other places. Probably futile if it's a Carrington Event but what the hell! I was going to build an underground bunker full of cases of baked beans until I realised the water table here in Papanui can be as high as 1.5m below the surface.