Ask HN: Could Wikipedia be printed for far future civilizations?

3 points·trestenhortz··4 comments

How far into the future could we hope to create something that remains readable?

How big would the printout be?

What materials could it be printed on to maximize the time it would be preserved for? Presumably paper wouldn’t last long enough.

How could it be stored?

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I think magnetic tape is the current standard for long term digital storage. But it sounds like you’re talking about creating a hard copy, in which case the harder the object usually the longer it will last: rock, metal, hardened clay. But those mediums would hardly be reasonable given how much content is in the English Wikipedia

Save it as a TXT on an MDisk (mdisc.com) and put it under something large and heavy, a la: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

Acid-free paper lasts a long time. If you want it to last longer, you could try vellum.

Centuries would be achievable, and after a few hundred years you could probably just reprint it on whatever technology they have.

http://carlos.bueno.org/2010/09/paper-internet.html

https://diff.wikimedia.org/2015/06/19/meet-print-wikipedia/

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Wikipedia-Taschenbuc...

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Deutschsprachige-Wik...

An intermediate stage of offset printing is aluminium plates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing#Materials). They would survive a long time in conditions that would destroy paper. If after the zombie apocalypse people used them to build shelters, that wouldn't necessarily make them illegible, whereas paper books might be used as fuel.

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