[ExI] Saving the data

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 6:03 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> My point is that science (and civilization in general) lives not just on
> data, but also the metainformation that makes it understandable and the
> handling practices that allows us to trust it. Getting all scientific
> data to just have metadata is going to be tricky enough, but we should
>
When viewed directly it does seem obvious that data (and knowledge that it
can be ordered to produce) should be preserved.  I wonder if the
civilization in general you mentioned above fails to preserve data because
our brains selectively discard so much detail of our daily life and by
similar habit has little interest in storing volumes of information beyond a
visceral capacity to manage.  A box of old photos is a cherished keepsake,
but the sum of the world's Flickr streams is meaningless to all but the most
theoretical application of "value".

Perhaps while you make a case for preservation of the store of universal
knowledge, you could also push for better tools for mere mortals to manage
the unwieldy beast.
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