[nglevin]

It may be old news to you, but Kai Krause's "Software is merely a Performance Art"[1] treads much the same territory, framing software as an ongoing framework to influence future generations.

Open source can be a solution, but it's limited by bitrot; what it runs on, and who or what is capable of interpreting it.

I feel there needs to be something else, haven't quite found out what that might be.

[1] - http://www.edge.org/response-detail/10113

[1337p337]

Since _why's stuff was open, he addressed bitrot in his (brilliant) novella. The article treats it some; the open-source remarks were about the code that you don't see, that suffers from being under lock and key as well as bitrot.

[nglevin]

Yes, bitrot is _addressed_, but not resolved.

That's the source of my frustration whenever the open source solution is brought up. It only works when there are hands present to maintain the source.

Which is much more effort than, say, writing a book and leaving it some place to be rediscovered. Only the popular or the intensely niche seem to survive.

[1337p337]

Well, the Urbit essays (linked in the article) are one attempt to resolve it, but bitrot still remains unresolved. I don't think I wrote anything indicating otherwise. If it doesn't see the light of day, it dies; bitrot is a slower death, but open source is a prerequisite to software not just disappearing into the void. I'd really like to have presented a solution to bitrot, but I don't have one.