This is something that keeps me worried at night. Unlike other historical artefacts like pottery, vellum writing, or stone tablets, information on the Internet can just blink into nonexistence when the server hosting it goes offline. This makes it difficult for future anthropologists who want to study our history and document the different Internet epochs. For my part, I always try to send any news article I see to an archival site (like archive.ph) to help collectively preserve our present so it can still be seen by others in the future.

  • kool_newt@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    Capitalism has no interest in preservation except where it is profitable. Thinking about the long-term future, archaeologist’s success and acting on it is not profitiable.

    • FuckFashMods@lib.lgbt
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Its not just capitalism lol

      Preserving things costs money/resources/time. This happens in a lot of societies.

      • kool_newt@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        And a non-capitalist society could decide to invest resources into preservation even if it’s not profitable.

          • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@vlemmy.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Could it? Yeah, sure it could, and in some cases it will, but only if someone up the chain thinks it’s profitable. Profit motive should never dictate how archaeology is practiced.