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Ask HN: How can we make the world's code discoverable in 10K years?

7 pointsby 1arityalmost 10 years ago
Global extinction level event, all our culture lost, but we want to keep a record of what we were doing. A library of Alexandria built in this age would contain much computer code. How to archive it in a format that's likely to be understood by future civilizations ?

4 comments

Mimualmost 10 years ago
I don't see the value of saving 'code'. Some algorithms maybe but I do believe the library of Alexandria is about ideas not tools.
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1arityalmost 10 years ago
An idea is a tool is an idea. Or an idea is a description of a tool. In any case, code is a history of our time. A computed history. It encodes the way we thought about things, reflected in the way we arranged our systems of doing things. There's an argument to be made that it is a highly efficient description -- it might be possible to accurately rebuild a fallen civilization if we could read its computer code. At the very least, we'd have a start on rebuilding its infrastructure. The writings of a time encode its culture, you can rebuild a culture from that. The Renaissance did this with the culture of ancient Greece and Rome. Code is a medium, of today. It works to save that, if we value the preservation of our time.
airframengalmost 10 years ago
Same way we have records from 10K years ago, by keeping hard copies.<p>Pull the plug and all e-records become inaccessible.
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bbcbasicalmost 10 years ago
Bitcoin blockchain!