The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime • Hacker News Board

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#41

Post by robjan » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 10:40 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #5

avar wrote: post #2

I wonder if by moving to digital communications we won't paradoxically be leaving a black hole for future historians when it comes to such records. I.e. now what would previously have been letters from the front might be sent as a text, phone call or E-Mail. Dead people don't pay for advertising revenue, so that data's likely being deleted soon after they're gone, or when their phone dies. Yes some of these services…

It's becoming expected that communication between two people or groups of people be fully private and encrypted, which was never the norm in the past. Not having random historical records is a side-effect of that, and IMO will only get worse.

In the past, people didn't share as much and as often so it didn't matter that their communications weren't encrypted. These days, the average person probably sends hundreds or thousands of messages per day across social media and instant messaging apps.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#42

Post by milankragujevic » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 12:13 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #40

40four wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unrelated to the post, but I find it beautiful that a colloquial phrase 'they say in India', has a sort of global recognition to me growing up in the United States. We used to call poor handwriting 'chicken scratch' for fun all the time when I was a kid. I would know because my handwriting has always been horrible. I was always jealous of people who had pretty handwriting :) I'm sure this is a term people in many oth…

RE chicken scratch, we have a very similar saying in Poland - "pisane jak kura pazurem", meaning "written like a chicken with its claw would".

Similar thing in Serbian - "švrakopis" - magpie's writing (švraka - magpie, -o- connection, pis[ati] - to write).

> crabbed handwritting, cacography, chicken scratch

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%A1vrakopis

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#43

Post by daveFNbuck » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 2:48 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #39

daveFNbuck wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living people are harmed by such disclosures if the idea that this might happen to their communications in the future makes them less willing to communicate openly and honestly with their loved ones.

Does the idea of a future historian poring over your e-mails make you less willing to send those e-mails today?

No, but I don't think this will happen and I don't send emails that I'm particularly concerned about others reading.

WWII letters were used as an example here. My grandfather was alive during WWII. I think it's reasonable to expect that there are people sending emails they'd much rather not have their grandchildren learn about after their death.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#44

Post by avar » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 3:23 AM UTC

daveFNbuck wrote: post #43

TeMPOraL wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the idea of a future historian poring over your e-mails make you less willing to send those e-mails today?

No, but I don't think this will happen and I don't send emails that I'm particularly concerned about others reading. WWII letters were used as an example here. My grandfather was alive during WWII. I think it's reasonable to expect that there are people sending emails they'd much rather not have their grandchildren learn about after their death.

The question isn't whether or not they'd prefer it when they were alive, it's whether we should care now that they're dead.

I'm willing to bet you agree with this notion in principle, and would just like to quibble about the time scale. Or do you think that if we unearthed something that's clearly private correspondence on a clay tablet from ancient Sumer that it should be kept private?

In this specific case, I'm willing to bet that if someone were to say "this secret should be kept from my grandchildren after I'm dead" it's exactly the sort of thing their living grandchildren would have an interest in knowing about, and that interest should outweigh a dead person's privacy.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#45

Post by daveFNbuck » Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:42 AM UTC

avar wrote: post #44

daveFNbuck wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but I don't think this will happen and I don't send emails that I'm particularly concerned about others reading. WWII letters were used as an example here. My grandfather was alive during WWII. I think it's reasonable to expect that there are people sending emails they'd much rather not have their grandchildren learn about after their death.

The question isn't whether or not they'd prefer it when they were alive, it's whether we should care now that they're dead. I'm willing to bet you agree with this notion in principle, and would just like to quibble about the time scale. Or do you think that if we unearthed something that's clearly private correspondence on a clay tablet from ancient Sumer that it should be kept private? In this specific case, I'm wil…

If we don't respect dead peoples' privacy, then living people won't expect their privacy to be respected when they die. This can cause people distress and result in changed behavior, which are real negative outcomes on living people. Currently living people care about their legacies and don't want embarrassing communications to become public after their deaths.

If you're really not concerned about the privacy of the dead and think that time scale is just a quibble, would you be ok with a policy that nude photos and 3d models of all dead bodies, together with personal identifying information, be uploaded to a public searchable website as soon as possible after death? After all, some people might be interested in seeing that.

Not many people are upset about the privacy implications of reading an ancient clay tablet, so this is not as big a concern. The time scale thing isn't just a quibble, it's central to how living people are affected.