[derektank]

Unfortunately, I think Vernor Vinge scooped you any way. One of the main characters of A Deepness in the Sky was something akin to a software archaeologist (I swear that exact phrase was used, but it’s been a minute) and that book was published in 1999.

[ethbr1]

Fair, but I didn't get to it until ~2010. And yeah, Vinge uses the exact phrasing https://akkartik.name/post/deepness