Data may not compute
Modern scholars are wrestling with a problem that ancient monks and early authors managed to master: how to keep their work accessible to future generations. While the books, papers, and journals of early scientists remain readable to anyone who can lay hands on them and knows the language, and that is not the case for those whose work is stored on early computer media, just a few decades old. The breakneck pace of technology’s advance has left data in its dust, stored on tapes, floppy disks, and other media now unreadable by newer computers. And it’s not just the nature of storage media that is rapidly changing. File formats change as new programs are developed, rendering older programs obsolete even while giving researchers powerful new tools. “Data is not like a book. If you get a 300-year-old book and you know the language, you can usually read it,” said Gary King, the Albert...