Post electronics archive

Short url - https://rebrand.ly/dg-archive

Intro

How to best preserve our knowledge (physical and spiritual) and texts?

We propose a network of archives spread over multiple regions,
where copies of all texts relevant to Hindus are preserved
in media which will persist for millennia.
The archived material should be readable with minimal technology,
to allow for regression technical abilities
due to loss of knowledge, lack of materials, electricity and such.

The archive and media used for preserving books should resist degradation and destruction due to factors such as

  • Vandalism and arson
  • Human greed for material (“Let me melt these plates and make a knife”)
  • Natural chemical degradation
    • Air pollution
    • Water, flooding
  • Insects, rodents and pests
  • Earthquakes
  • Monopolizing, hoarding

Similar efforts include

  • Memory of mankind (wiki)
  • The Long now foundation’s Rosetta Nickel Disks (wiki)
  • Github’s Arctic Code Vault (ap) - snapshot of every active public repository on 02/02/2020.
  • Arch Lunar Library. (Arch mission, ar) preserve the records of our civilization for up to billions of years.

Possible media

Longevity of several media, ranging from paper to stone, is surveyed in this “knowledge preservation” webpage.

Currently, the most promising media for storing images of pages or plain text are:

  • High quality ceramic tiles
  • Nickel Disk

Reading mechanism - magnifying lens, microscopy.

Text collection

Number of published texts we want to save is in 100000s.
Even if, in the beginning stages, we pick the most important ones, it might be 10000. Of these we’d need 25 copies to store in different locations worldwide.

To help form a plan, consider the first 600pg book in this bhAgavata-commentary series. There are roughly 1380 letters (e.g. व्या · ख्या · न · च · तु · ष्ट · य · वि · शि · ष्ट · म्) and 380 spaces in a typical page from the book linked earlier (counting tool ).

How many tablets would it need - at minimum resolution (requiring 10x magnification) and at naked-eye visible resolution?

Cost

Given the high volume, it is important the cost be low.
This likely possible if the technology is indigenized
and if local materials and skills are used.
We are still in the enquiry stage.

Idea: If you have contacts with Indian tile manufacturers in RJ (eg. kajAriya), and if you can convince them to develop the technology - we would be set to proceed.

Current enquiries

Ceramic tiles, 202406: For one-off texts, it can cost 40$ per ceramic tile plus shipping from EU. (“the smallest text size is 4 pt in Arial style. It is the still readable with the naked eye. the capacity (of latin letters) is about 40 000 characters on the 20x20 cm surface of a MOM tablet.”)

TODO: Contact Long Now foundation regarding reuse of their Rosetta project tech.

TODO: Contact Arctic world archive

Archive locations

Redundant copies of texts should be preserved in geographically separated locations. Some criteria -

  • Preferably, there ought to be a local scholarly community
    which can utilize and care for the texts.
  • Further, if the archive is located within a religious structure (eg. temple, maTha, samAdhi), it is more likely to be preserved.
  • The location should preferably be away from financial centers which are more likely to attract plunder.

For example, in India and surroundings:

  • mattUru village, karNATaka
  • gokarNa, karNATaka
  • shrIrangam, tamiL nADu
  • tirupati, Andhra pradesh
  • daxiNapatha sattra, majUli, assam
  • bhuvaneshvar, Orissa
  • ayodhyA, UP
  • vRndAvan, UP
  • vArANAsI, UP
  • kAThmaNDu, nepAL
  • haridvAr, uttarAkhaND
  • shimla, HP
  • mahAkAla temple, ujjain, MP
  • dvArikA, GJ

Outside India:

  • MUM Fairfield, Iowa, USA
  • barsAna dhAm, TX, USA
  • BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London, UK
  • bAli, Indonesia
  • BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Durban Hindu temple, South Africa
  • Raghavendra swamy mutt, Toongabie, NSW, AU
  • Thirumurugan Temple, Auckland, New Zealand
  • Sri Siva Subramaniya Temple, Fiji
  • A temple in Guyana or Suriname, South America
  • The Latin American Hindu colony, South America

Preservation need

Human brain is limited - so important texts need to be preserved.
For example:

  • rAmANuja had to trek all the way to kAshmIr to consult bodhAyana-vRtti,
  • deshika had to carry a big trunk of palm leaves to save shruta-prakAshika etc.., while fleeing Islamic invasion of shrIrangam.
  • Even a text published by so famous a person as uttamUru-svAmI 50 years ago is very hard to find.

Examples of catastrophic loss -

  • The last classical antique library in Constantinople burnt down in the 5th century and 120000 codices with it. The first medieval library of the 6th century contained about 100 books.
  • Burnt libraries of nAlandA, Alexandria.

Post-industrial age focus

The post-oil, post-industrial-age world will arrive (details TM), with much unrest, by 2160 (or 2260 if ice-methane extraction works out). Lack of fertilizers will lead to famine and a big drop in population. Raw materials like plastics, copper, and lithium too will be rarer. Machines - let alone computers - will be scarce. So, electronic data will be ephemeral.+++(5)+++

(Even while the industrial age is going strong, 38% of web-pages from 2013 was not accessible anymore in 2024. PR)

How then to best preserve our knowledge (physical and spiritual) and texts?