Re: CHAT: facing your own mortality (as a conlanger)

On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 5:35 AM, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:

> I wonder if it would be possible to engrave data
> DVDs into some durable metal? That should outlast
> both floppies and printed books, provided the
> apparatus to read them still exists -- which is
> akin to having to know ancient languages in order
> to read ancient manuscripts -- not to mention the
> technology needed to preserve and handle them.
You would want to store said high-durability DVDs with
an acid-free book that describes how to build a DVD player,
what the DVD format convention is, high-level source code
for DVD player firmware, etc.  It might be cheaper to convert
the movie into a series of flip-books; if the printing were
of high enough quality, a future society to could photograph
each page of the book and make it a frame in whatever
film format they use in those days.

(On second thought.... at 24 frames/sec, you're looking
at about 20 seconds per 500-page book, or 360 volumes
for a 2-hour movie.  Never mind.)

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang/fluency-survey.html
Conlang fluency survey -- there's still time to participate before
I analyze the results and write the article