[iDC] [IDC} Shelf Life

[John Hopkins]

Hallo --

A display at Joshua Tree National Park posits that a coke bottle 
(=quartz=silicon dioxide=a glass bottle, but the cultural branding is 
included ;-) left in the environment would last approximately 
1,000,000 years.

I just was visiting the Pergamon Museum in Berlin -- the lesson repeated there:

Best  to work in stone=quartz=silicon dioxide.

The Silicon Dioxide in the amorphous silica chip of your computer's 
processor will last quite some time.

This discussion has been repeated before in photography and its 
archival process among many others as Bruce reminds us...

The energy of a work can outlast the material form of the work itself 
-- Adrianne's example of Euripides is apropos.  The energy of a work 
can survive severe contextual shifts...  it can also almost 
completely die  with a slight contextual shift (a floppy with no 
floppy drive).

John