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Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

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Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#341

Post by ahmedfromtunis »

metalliqaz wrote: post #264
jamesdf wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “What was there to say? Civilization was like a mad dash that lasted five thousand years. Progress begot more progress; countless miracles gave birth to more miracles; humankind seemed to possess the power of gods; but in the end, the real power was wielded by time. Leaving behind a mark was tougher than creating a world. At the end of civilization, all they could do was the same thing they had done in the distant…

I recall some scifi where some Diety/SuperAI left 'commandments' for humanity carved into giant monuments made of diamond. I presume that was considered the only thing that would survive deep time.

I don't think it's necessary to go into all this trouble. Tablets made of the much, much cheaper clay are still accessible today—4000 years after they were created.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#342

Post by trhway »

NoGravitas wrote: post #155

Print it out on acid-free paper with a stable, acid-free ink. Have it bound as a hardback, and seal it into a waterproof container. Entrust it to one of your children, tell them to keep it in a safe-deposit box and take it out once a year to share with their children, and to pass it on to their children with the same instructions. If you have it electronically, the absolute best case in 500 years is that it will be a…

> keep it in a safe-deposit box

on a practically non-declining 2000km high orbit where USSR Uranium nuclear reactors are parked.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#343

Post by trhway »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #331
NoGravitas wrote: post #155

Print it out on acid-free paper with a stable, acid-free ink. Have it bound as a hardback, and seal it into a waterproof container. Entrust it to one of your children, tell them to keep it in a safe-deposit box and take it out once a year to share with their children, and to pass it on to their children with the same instructions. If you have it electronically, the absolute best case in 500 years is that it will be a…

Oh. You assume that in 500 years there will still be fish.

you just may not recognize that as fish.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#345

Post by trenchgun »

Make a front payment for 10 of the oldest businesses each to store a copy of your website for 500 years. They have been around more than a thousand years, likely at least some of them will be around for 500 more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#346

Post by t-writescode »

thruway516 wrote: post #166
trinovantes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also the fact that human language will also change over the course of 500 years 500 year old English is nothing like English today

Assuming anyone is still speaking English, and not say Mandarin or even some obscure African language no one has even heard about yet.

This is interesting because your go to was an existing, but non-English language, rather than a completely different language that is an amalgamation of other, existing languages, gone through several generations of memes, in-jokes, meaning reversals, etc, to the point of being unintelligible from the former.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#347

Post by PicassoCTs »

metalliqaz wrote: post #264
jamesdf wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “What was there to say? Civilization was like a mad dash that lasted five thousand years. Progress begot more progress; countless miracles gave birth to more miracles; humankind seemed to possess the power of gods; but in the end, the real power was wielded by time. Leaving behind a mark was tougher than creating a world. At the end of civilization, all they could do was the same thing they had done in the distant…

I recall some scifi where some Diety/SuperAI left 'commandments' for humanity carved into giant monuments made of diamond. I presume that was considered the only thing that would survive deep time.

Eschaton in Singularitys Sky?

"You shall not meddle with the lightcone of the recursive time-travelling super-intelligence you created?"

Re: Ask HN: Best way to host a website for 500 years?

#350

Post by londons_explore »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #225
dylan604 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, but why?

I think it's a historically significant dataset. We've seen other datasets be preserved, such as GitHub arctic vault. I agree that it's tenuous. I would give it 20% odds of hitting the 500 year mark at best. And I don't think all of the data will survive. But if archive.org ever becomes unsustainable to run, the existing data will likely be preserved. Lots of companies will be incentivized to continue hosting the dat…

Archive.org has substantial legal risks too.

Imagine a future gdpr-like policy that gives people's descendants ownership and copyright over everything they've said. Suddenly every word written into archive.org has an owner, who might come and sue archive.org or its managers. Soon every person alive has some grandparent who wrote something in the archive and some of them are wanting compensation for all the decades archive.org has been distributing grandpa's words for free.

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