DATA DEGRADATION AND THE DISAPPEARING INTERNET
You might want to pour yourself a couple of fingers of your favorite adult beverage, sit down, and brace yourself before reading the following article shared by T.S. (with our gratitude). It seems that data degradation (the shock! the surprise! the horror!) is occurring on the internet, and data is simply disappearing for what appears to be no good reason:
The crisis, when one digs a bit into the article, is in a certain sense rather predictable and mundane, and indeed, I myself have been a victim of some of the problems the following quotation outlines:
At the forefront of the fight to preserve this digital heritage is the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping our online past alive.
Founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive is one of the most significant undertakings in digital preservation. As a comprehensive digital library, it stores web pages, books, videos, and more. To date, the archive has preserved a staggering 866 billion web pages, 44 million books, and 10.6 million videos.
Its most recognized feature, the Wayback Machine, lets users revisit deleted or altered websites, offering a glimpse into the past through a unique “time machine for the Internet.” But this monumental effort faces severe challenges.
Financial, technological, and legal hurdles threaten the Internet Archive’s mission. In 2023, the organization suffered a major legal blow when a court ruled against its digitization and lending of books, accusing it of violating copyright laws. This ruling not only hinders its book preservation efforts but also casts doubt on the future of its broader mission.
Moreover, the Internet Archive faces significant technical vulnerabilities. In May 2024, the organization experienced a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, exposing its susceptibility to cyber threats. Should the Archive fail, a significant portion of the digital world as we know it may be lost forever. (Italicized emphasis added, boldface emphasis in the original.)
But there's something else, and that is simply the ability to keep up and archive everything before data degradation - whether inadvertent or deliberate - occurs:
Digital decay is not just limited to aging websites or forgotten blogs. According to the Pew Research Center, an alarming 9% of web pages created between 2013 and 2023 have already disappeared. These include crucial government information, news articles, and academic references.
Wikipedia, one of the most heavily used online resources, is plagued by “link rot,” where more than half of its articles contain at least one broken link. This phenomenon, called “link rot,” happens when hyperlinks break or their target websites no longer exist. But this is not merely an inconvenience; it’s a profound loss of our society’s collective memory.
Researchers, historians, and everyday users will find it increasingly difficult to access the information that forms the backbone of our understanding of the recent past. The problem extends beyond traditional websites. Social media platforms, which have become central to modern communication, are also vulnerable.
For instance, 15% of tweets are deleted within months of posting, and entire social media accounts can vanish with a simple click. This ephemeral nature of digital content underscores the urgent need for comprehensive archiving efforts to preserve our history.
Notice that lurking behind all of this is that Data degradation can be "assisted" in a variety of ways, but it all boils down to Catherine Austin Fitt's aphorism that "No cyber system is secure."
Translation:
No cyber system of data storage is either secure or permanent, since it can be altered or deleted at the push of a button, like the deletion of an entire planet from the digital computerized "Jedi library" in the second (prequel) episode of Star Wars.
Still think a cashless, paperless, completely digital system of finance, record-keeping, and most importantly, historiography, is a good idea?
So once again, for all those who have not yet caught on: The only canonical version of any of my works - and my extension, anyone else's - is the hardcopy book. Any deviation of any electronic copy from the formatting and wording contents of the original must bow to the primary copy. Only it is - so to speak - legal tender...
Be smart. Use cash. read books. Don't use the facsimile of either.
See you on the flip side...
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