From what I understand, a lot of knowledge was lost following the collapse of the Roman Empire as manuscripts were no longer being copied at the established frequency and information that had lost relevance (for certain jobs etc.) wasn’t being passed down.
If a catastrophic event were to happen nowadays, how much information would we theoretically lose? Is the knowledge of the world, stored digitally or on printed books, safer than it was before?
All the information online for example - does that have a greater chance of surviving millennia than say a preserved manuscript?
Do you reckon the physical copies would last longer than digital?
Yeah, some infos that had to be stored really long times, like the location of buried radioactive waste, are written on paper. Because with current tech, we can make really good paper that doesn’t tear easily or rot for hundreds of years and really good ink that doesn’t fade, but we can’t make digital drives that can last nearly as long. Even regular paper and ink, if in the right conditions, may last longer than an SSD or HDD…
source 1 (Safety of Nuclear Waste Disposal)
source 2 (Nordik Nuclear Safety Research Project)
Digital Copies don’t last long at all.
Even if they did - you would still need a method of extracting the information.
Physical Copies already have a method of extraction - Eyeballs.