There is an old observation that I found striking at the time:
Newer methods of storing information tend to be progressively easier to write, and progressively less durable.
(The following is not really in chronological order)
You'll never look at stone tablets the same way again. As primitive as they are, their longevity can be amazing. Ancient emperors and tyrants knew what they were doing. Trajan's column from 113 AD is our main source on roman legionary's iconic equipment.
Cuneiform tablets were heavy and awkward, but they were 3D so there was no paint to worry about.
Parchment tends to be more durable than papyrus, and paper. Perhaps the best known among the Dead Sea Scrolls was made out of copper.
Iron Age culture artifacts are harder to find than Bronze Age one, because bronze is more resistant to corrosion.
CD's, especially(?) from home burners, are reported to oxidize after several years. That may still be better than tapes, hard drives and other magnetic media (SSD?) which can be wiped by an EMP pulse. The internet era information storage appears to come with an upkeep cost! Slack practically doesn't archive messages by default. Until Gmail, it was typical for email servers to delete old messages.
People get used to novelty and things being ephemeral. Capitalism supposedly requires low durability goods so people keep buying them, including tools and clothes. Houses are poorly built break down pretty quickly.
I find it amazing people used to decorate their homes, tools, clothes with ornaments, engravings etc. You'd be a fool to do that today, you don't even know how long that thing is going to last.
Newer methods of storing information tend to be progressively easier to write, and progressively less durable.
(The following is not really in chronological order)
You'll never look at stone tablets the same way again. As primitive as they are, their longevity can be amazing. Ancient emperors and tyrants knew what they were doing. Trajan's column from 113 AD is our main source on roman legionary's iconic equipment.
Cuneiform tablets were heavy and awkward, but they were 3D so there was no paint to worry about.
Parchment tends to be more durable than papyrus, and paper. Perhaps the best known among the Dead Sea Scrolls was made out of copper.
Iron Age culture artifacts are harder to find than Bronze Age one, because bronze is more resistant to corrosion.
CD's, especially(?) from home burners, are reported to oxidize after several years. That may still be better than tapes, hard drives and other magnetic media (SSD?) which can be wiped by an EMP pulse. The internet era information storage appears to come with an upkeep cost! Slack practically doesn't archive messages by default. Until Gmail, it was typical for email servers to delete old messages.
People get used to novelty and things being ephemeral. Capitalism supposedly requires low durability goods so people keep buying them, including tools and clothes. Houses are poorly built break down pretty quickly.
I find it amazing people used to decorate their homes, tools, clothes with ornaments, engravings etc. You'd be a fool to do that today, you don't even know how long that thing is going to last.