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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Stross on the future of history

My pal, Hugo-winning sf writer Charlie Stross, has an op-ed on the BBC today, about the future of history. Once everyone and everything is recorded forever, what will historians do for a living?

Sixty to a hundred kilograms is all it takes to store an entire 21st Century of human experience.
And some time after our demise, this information will be available to historians.
And what a mass of information it will be. For the first time ever, they'll be able to know who was where, when, and what they said; just what words were exchanged in smoky beer halls 30 years before the revolutions that haven't happened yet: who it was who claimed to be there when they founded the Party (but didn't join until years later): and where the bodies are buried.

Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:37:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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