when I was in college in the 1990s I took a document design course and we had to go talk to an archivist at the university library
the library had a single page from a gutenberg bible (the bible had been damaged by fire and the remaining undamaged pieces cut apart and sold) and a CD sitting next to each other
we looked at the bible page, marveling at this 500+ year old page with its neatly set type, carefully kept under a sheet of glass to protect it
and then she held up the CD and pointed out that in 500 years, if a CD could even last that long, it was unlikely we’d possess the technology to read it
and we all got very quiet and look at the book page for a long time
and is evidenced by the fact I’m telling you about this almost 30 years later, I have never forgotten that blank-looking shiny piece of plastic sitting next to a beautiful, ancient piece of paper that someone pressed words into with a machine and left for me to read, hundreds of years before I was born.
