incrediBILL - 6:52 pm on Jul 4, 2007 (gmt 0)

Part of the problem lies in the complexity of the current technology. 20 years ago I knew how all of it worked from the CPU to the floppy and could make board level repairs to any part of my computer that might break. Back then I used to even know how to read and write tracks directly from a floppy or hard disk to manually fix things when they crashed, or transfer data from CP/M machines to IBM mainframes in EBCDIC format disks, something I don't even have the gear to do today.

Today computers basically work the same but to get smaller, cheaper and faster there are no discrete circuits that can be fixed and removing a surface mounted chip from a modern board will virtually destroy it, it's unmaintainable. So now you can basically replace the boards assuming that particular board still exists.

So forget the media, there won't be a maintainable machine to read the media!

So assuming after a civilization collapse of some sort what many are missing is the fact that 100 years later even *IF* the media is still intact, the very ability to read a CD with a laser may be lost, assuming people even know what a laser is in the first place.

Maybe you find one CD-ROM drive still operational, what is the data stored on the CD-ROM?

Anyone know how to decode an MP3 or JPEG off the top of their heads?

Of course all the documentation on how to decode MP3s and JPEGs is stored in a PDF file on the dual-sided DVD backup. Assuming you could read a dual-sided DVD or interpret a PDF file which has visual presentations on the process in JPEG format inside the PDF describing how to decode the JPEG in the first place...

Let's face it, if they ever drop the bomb we'll all be reduced to driving the few '60s era cars remaining and using the few Apple 2's still operational because it's about the only thing we can maintain on our own by scavenging for parts.

The bottom line is we'll lose far more than just a few databases as all of our music and movies will also be lost, not to mention family photos.

An entire generation of creation that pales the works lost in the great library of Alexandria: POOF!