[inglor_cz]

Burn it all on CDs and leave them for ten years in wet environment.

Joking aside, our methods of recording information are hellishly vulnerable. This comes with the density of record. A clay tablet from Mesopotamia does not carry more than 2 kB of info, but 4000 years have gone by and it is still readable.

[wirrbel]

I think the most present danger for books and preservation efforts today is of course deletion of digital records, but for books we have more printed copies everywhere than ever.

But, the danger is really high that they will be all thrown out alongside of the yellowed Harry Potter books.

[nickbauman]

We still can't read Linear A, the language of Minoan Greece.

[inglor_cz]

Forgotten protocols are a thing until today. AFAIK we have problems deciphering the recorded transmissions of Lunokhod, the Soviet probe that landed on the Moon. Everyone who knew the code is dead.

[lai-yin]

Would be interesting to have a catalogue of endangered protocols/knowledge bases - similar to the endangered species list.

Bit of a tangent: just occurred to me that part of the story arc for the show 'Mr. Robot' is hackers trying to erase an entire knowledge base - the debt history of billions of people. The protagonists try to achieve this goal by peaceful means, but...okay I'm going to stop spoiling it's an awesome show check it out.

[p1esk]

In Mr Robot the goal was to destroy a data base, not a knowledge base. Data != knowledge.

[lai-yin]

Fair point!

[spdegabrielle]

The OAIS reference model was created to address the issue in space data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Archival_Information_Syst...