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Comment by imhoguy | Hacker News Reader

> how do people store data for 100+ years?

Print it.

Don't do this. I somehow ended up with all the pictures of family going back to the 1800s. I have 5 suitcases full that I now have to scan.

Find the best representative photos, and upload them to Geni.com, Ancestry.com, MyHerritage.com, 23andme, etc. They are bound to survive from one of those sources.

That's why you pick the best five from each year and print them in a small acid-free paper book.

You keep the gigantic digital repository as long as feasible (I burn to M-Discs), but for accessibility and long-term, pick your favorites in a way we have good reason to think can last for hundreds of years.

> print them in a small acid-free paper book

any good recommendations for printers?

Shutterfly's interface is (was? been a while) kind of painful, but we've gotten good results from them.

Chatbooks makes it fairly brainlessly easy to produce books regularly (and had a hilarious ad a few years back focusing on the ease of use compared to other options: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF2eKaOc3wo).

I can't swear to the longevity of the books - I never dug into the details of how they're printed, because I'm not especially concerned about making sure they last a hundred years.

It's the right strategy in principle, though, if that is your goal.

Why don't you just pass on 6 suitcases instead of adding the risk of losing digital media. The current process has worked for your family for 200 years.

Color inkjet printing wasn't a thing 50 years ago

On acid-free paper.

In a decent box.

With archival quality pigment inks

https://keithdotson.com/blogs/news/how-long-will-your-photog...

Do you have any insight on whether NeverTear would be good media for long-term archival? Waterproof and damage resistant is a big plus, but I wonder if they come at the cost of pigmant durability.

I can’t say for sure. I’ve never used the product you mention, but it is made out of polyester, which is supposed to be great for archival purposes. So…probably yes?

I disagree - digital is the only route. Printouts will get lost, bent, fires, floods, and lost.

The broader idea that I find interesting however is how to preserve digital content for > 100 years. It's okay if other people don't care about that - I do, and I think it's an interesting set of problem constraints, and was just wondering if anyone else has thought about it.

It's difficult to suggest an actual use case for blockchain, and I am far from an expert, but I think this could be an interesting innovative options for actually using distributed databases to control assets and make collective decisions in a decentralized fashion.

Looking at 200 year old photos is easy.

Trying to find hardware to access a 30 year old hard drive is not.

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