Re: [-empyre-] In the year 2525 - Using the web archives

[Andrew Burrell <andrew@miscellanea.com>]

Empyrians,

Some thoughts on a few of the strands running through this 
conversation...

I recently presented a paper on the ancient library of Alexandria at a 
humanities conference, and was surprised (though in hindsight I should 
not have  been) that question time revolved around discussion of the 
following quote, which discussed the destruction of the collections at 
Alexandria, Pergamon and the like:


"The disasters of late antiquity had the general effect of rendering 
ancient literature a manageable corpus again. Had it survived, our own 
libraries would have long since burst- as they will do in the near 
future unless some similar catastrophe wipes out most of our extant 
holdings (or puts them on the internet!). Not only did the destruction 
of late antiquity reduce ancient literature to a manageable corpus, but 
it improved its overall quality as only canonised classics, in the 
main, survived." [J.O. Ward, "Alexandria and Its Medieval Legacy: The 
Book the Monk and the Rose," ]


There was a certain amount of anger (or at the very  least least 
disgust) in the audience that one could suggest such a thing. It may, 
at first, appear to be unthinkable to speak of the destruction of such 
works as being somehow a good thing.  But then I realized that the 
horror that I feel in the possibility of celebrating this loss, is,  
more a symptom of my yearning for what I imagined might have been, 
rather than what was actually lost.

What we plan to leave as a 'heritage' for the writers of history in the 
future, is not what will necessarily reach them. Especially if our own 
disasters render our own sprawling archives a 'manageable corpus.' They 
(those who write our history) will still mourn that which they imagine 
to have  been lost and will more than likely fill in the gaps with 
their own vision of our age.

There is an answer to some of  this, however, and it revolves around 
the role of the  individual. I will allow another commentator on the 
ancient libraries to make this point for me:


"The great concentrations of books, usually found in the centres, were 
the main victims of the destructive outbreaks, ruinous attacks, 
sackings and fires. The libraries of Byzantium proved to be no 
exception to the rule. In consequence, what has come down to us is 
derived not from the great centres but from the ‘marginal’ locations, 
such as convents, and scattered private copies." [Luciano Canfora, The 
Vanished Library]


But, these comments also rely on assumptions I have made regarding the 
answers to the question

"whom are we archiving for?"

In the "now,"  however, if we as a culture, or as individuals ever lose 
the drive to collect, archive and store 'ourselves', it would be a sure 
sign that we had laid down and given up.

And as a stab at an answer to Paul Koerbin's question:

Who will be using our archives in 2525? People like us. People who are 
inquisitive, interested, concerned, flawed, curious, questioning and 
human. Technologies and outlooks may have changed since 1525, or even 
525 BC, but I don't think these qualities of the people who use the 
technologies or possess these outlooks has changed. No matter what our 
future I don't see this changing in anything like 500 odd years. And 
while these are still attributes of being human, any talk of none of 
this really mattering in the context of the vastness of time and space 
outside of our individual lives, is defeatist and a evasion of 
responsibility to yourself.


longtime lurker...
andrew burrell
http://www.miscellanea.com