A prudent society keeps at least one specimen of all it makes, forever. It still amazes me that after 20 years the only publicly available back up of the internet is the privately funded Internet Archive. The only broad archive of television and radio broadcasts is the same organization. They are now backing up the backups of books. Someday we’ll realize the precocious wisdom of it all and Brewster Kahle will be seen as a hero.
We’ve had silent movies rot. We’ve had TV shows rot. We’ve had talking feature films rot.
That is what capitalism does. It does not preserve. It spends.
It doesn’t care about yesterday or tomorrow. Only today.
This is the world designed by capitalism:
God bless Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and all other initiatives that understand what true value means and which stand in opposition to the smothering, suicidal forces of money money money.
And you, you reading this: Have you set up your blog or site to be preserved by the Internet Archive? Do it! NOW!
Mike Cane’s xBlog 