The Seattle PI this morning reports on a Microsoft project called "immortal computing" - "definitely a long-term project," says a Microsoft researcher named Andy Wilson...
One scenario the researchers envision: People could store messages to descendants, information about their lives or interactive holograms of themselves for access by visitors at their tombstones or urns....
"Hi, guys"...
And here's where the notion of immortality really kicks in: The researchers say the artifacts could be symbolic representations of people, reflecting elements of their personalities. The systems might be set up to take action -- e-mailing birthday greetings to people identified as grandchildren, for example.
Won't that be dandy? Spam from your great, great grandparents?
(Of course MoveOn will like this idea. Every try to get those guys to stop?)
OK, seriously I'm talking here, the problem of archiving data for the long term is real. The odds are just about nil that what you're saving on your hard disk today will last as long as something some monk lettered on parchment in the Middle Ages. (The odds on its being worth keeping that long are pretty low too, but that's beside the point.) If you put a floppy disk in your time capsule you're pretty much out of luck.
But still, sending email to your great, great grandkids is not a good idea. Believe me, it'll be a whole lot better if, when you die, you shut up.
Although now that I think of it I have to admit that walking through a graveyard some day in the future and seeing all those tombstones stuck on the Blue Screen of Death would be pretty cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment