this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Showerthoughts
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Why?
Unlike in history, we don't really lose information anymore. Not trivia about a massively popular fiction like that anyway.
For instance, Homer, the writer of the Iliad and Odyssey, is still well known. He lived almost 3000 years ago. He was known by the ancient Norse as well, so it's not like it's one of those things that was lost to history and discovered in the modern age.
But... I guess you might be trying to make a point that maybe by that point there are real light sabers and perhaps even have been for centuries. It'd make it sort of like the origins of the modern taser, which are also in sort of in scifi. Sort of. Loosely.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser#History
Which keeps better, paper or a hard drive? Exposed to the elements, that is. A literal metal disc or a collection of paper fibers?
The sheer amount of copies of Star Wars in all it's forms is mind-boggling, and again, literally global. We also have people and institutions dedicated to archiving significant things.
There are very few imaginable situations which would lead to humanity losing the concept of what a light saber is.
Like please, propose one.
You're seriously suggesting cultures 3000 years ago preserved information better than we do? Seriously?
Simply untrue.
Can you read data off a floppy disk today? How many others can? How many in fifty years can? The point is that left alone our physical media of today is not compatible in the future because you need specialty tools to read it.
Anyone can pickup and read a piece of paper or a rock with carvings in it. The point is that not only does the media need to survive, but the means to make use of it needs to survive as well.
That is the key issue with technology today. Someone needs to keep loving the data from floppy to zip drive to thumb drive to hard drive to whatever is next or it's lost.
Why on Earth would we lose the ability to read simple magnetic storage?
Yes, I can read data off floppy disk today due to having a floppy drive somewhere in my storage. And even if I didn't, it'd cost like at most 50 euros to get even a new reader. Get one off Amazon for 20 bucks.
It's rather trivial. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_storage
And what data exactly are there on floppy disks that isn't on other media? Like... globally culturally significant data.
Can you read ancient Greek? I can't, but I still know about the Trojan Horse. I can't read Biblical Hebrew, but I know about the ten commandments. How?