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lattelibrarian's review
3.0
"But if we're protecting [ephemera/artifacts] for the sake of future users, once those future users arrive, won't they again be unable to view it or see it or touch it, in order to protect it for the sake of future users?"
A dense but intriguing book about the lifespan and history of data collection. Murphy weaves us through libraries, cold war bunkers, ways of preserving physical data, and how data preservation has evolved with technology. I've listed this book as library science, largely because--surprise--I'm a librarian. Data information science is kinda my thing. I will say, though, I was expecting this book to be more about where data is at now and where it is going rather than starting from the beginning.
Did you know that libraries used Zyklon to disinfect books fewer than 100 years ago? Or that data preservation companies have bought and utilized cold war bunkers and old mines to use colder temperatures to save physical ephemera? Or that bookworms actually do exist?
The science portion of it lost me a bit, as I'm more concerned with the why, the more human side of data. But that's not to say that this book wasn't hugely interesting. I'm still trying to grasp it, in total honesty. I had no idea that some data is protected with 24/7 armed security, though I did know that data is fallible and can be lost. In libraries and archives, it can be lost to fires. Even on the "cloud", this near-imaginary weightless data archive is physical with malls being repurposed and wreaking havoc on our environment. There, data is also fallible.
What do we protect and why do we protect it? We protect whatever somebody pays us to protect. We protect cultural artifacts. We protect information. We protect it for the future. For personal use. For community use, such as in time capsules.
Where Murphy is concerned with the longevity of such data and the lengths we go through to maintain and retain it, I wonder what it matters to keep some data when all of us are...well, dead. Does it then matter that we protect films that nobody can access? Is it just a type of cultural and historical hoarding? What does it matter that data preservation is something that rich people can afford? Certain directors have originals of their films stored. Even Beyonce has hours upon hours--years, perhaps, of videos, photographs, interviews that warranted a library job posting to catalog and archive.
Murphy, of course, cannot answer these questions. They are too big for anyone to answer.
What Murphy does answer, however, is what our personal data might look like after we as individuals die. We have data backed up with our social media, emails, account numbers--even our internet searches which may misidentify us as older or younger than we are, or as a completely different demographic! How will our data remember us if we don't remember our data?
There is just so much incredible information in this book that I think will interest librarians, archivists, and tech nerds alike. So thought-provoking and wonderful.
A dense but intriguing book about the lifespan and history of data collection. Murphy weaves us through libraries, cold war bunkers, ways of preserving physical data, and how data preservation has evolved with technology. I've listed this book as library science, largely because--surprise--I'm a librarian. Data information science is kinda my thing. I will say, though, I was expecting this book to be more about where data is at now and where it is going rather than starting from the beginning.
Did you know that libraries used Zyklon to disinfect books fewer than 100 years ago? Or that data preservation companies have bought and utilized cold war bunkers and old mines to use colder temperatures to save physical ephemera? Or that bookworms actually do exist?
The science portion of it lost me a bit, as I'm more concerned with the why, the more human side of data. But that's not to say that this book wasn't hugely interesting. I'm still trying to grasp it, in total honesty. I had no idea that some data is protected with 24/7 armed security, though I did know that data is fallible and can be lost. In libraries and archives, it can be lost to fires. Even on the "cloud", this near-imaginary weightless data archive is physical with malls being repurposed and wreaking havoc on our environment. There, data is also fallible.
What do we protect and why do we protect it? We protect whatever somebody pays us to protect. We protect cultural artifacts. We protect information. We protect it for the future. For personal use. For community use, such as in time capsules.
Where Murphy is concerned with the longevity of such data and the lengths we go through to maintain and retain it, I wonder what it matters to keep some data when all of us are...well, dead. Does it then matter that we protect films that nobody can access? Is it just a type of cultural and historical hoarding? What does it matter that data preservation is something that rich people can afford? Certain directors have originals of their films stored. Even Beyonce has hours upon hours--years, perhaps, of videos, photographs, interviews that warranted a library job posting to catalog and archive.
Murphy, of course, cannot answer these questions. They are too big for anyone to answer.
What Murphy does answer, however, is what our personal data might look like after we as individuals die. We have data backed up with our social media, emails, account numbers--even our internet searches which may misidentify us as older or younger than we are, or as a completely different demographic! How will our data remember us if we don't remember our data?
There is just so much incredible information in this book that I think will interest librarians, archivists, and tech nerds alike. So thought-provoking and wonderful.
oldmansimms's review
3.0
A solid exploration of a niche subject. Murphy charts the history of various schemes to preserve data, from the optimistic (time capsules meant to be opened by our genetically perfect descendants in the year 8113 A.D.; the Voyager Records) to the mundane (ways to protect books from air pollution in early-industrial cities; the ever-growing digital archives of random crap held by modern companies) to the weird (gas chambers for killing bookworms; a performance artist's microscale etching of images onto a satellite in "graveyard orbit" around the Earth).
It's often interesting but rarely revelatory, and Murphy does sometimes lose the plot a little bit - for instance, spending a huge amount of time discussing American contests about who could be "the most typical American family" and all the racial, economic, and patriarchal stereotypes that entails; this is presumably to provide context for the weird eugenically-utopian beliefs held by some of the organizers of the long-scale time capsules he talks about, but it didn't really feel on-topic. Also, I was disappointed in the extremely cursory mention of the topic of how to warn future (indeed, very-far-future) humans about the dangers of nuclear waste storage sites. I've learned a little about that on my own outside of this book, and it's a fascinating subject (prone to outside-the-box ideas like bioluminescent cats) that fits the "End of the World" subtitle of this book to a T, so it's a shame not to include it here.
Thanks to NetGalley and University of North Carolina Press for the ARC.
It's often interesting but rarely revelatory, and Murphy does sometimes lose the plot a little bit - for instance, spending a huge amount of time discussing American contests about who could be "the most typical American family" and all the racial, economic, and patriarchal stereotypes that entails; this is presumably to provide context for the weird eugenically-utopian beliefs held by some of the organizers of the long-scale time capsules he talks about, but it didn't really feel on-topic. Also, I was disappointed in the extremely cursory mention of the topic of how to warn future (indeed, very-far-future) humans about the dangers of nuclear waste storage sites. I've learned a little about that on my own outside of this book, and it's a fascinating subject (prone to outside-the-box ideas like bioluminescent cats) that fits the "End of the World" subtitle of this book to a T, so it's a shame not to include it here.
Thanks to NetGalley and University of North Carolina Press for the ARC.
librarypatronus's review
3.0
Thanks to Netgalley and University of North Carolina Press for the ARC of this. I switched back and forth between the Audible edition that I purchased when I was reading this.
This is definitely full of information that I had no experience with, the cover and topic just sounded really intriguing. The author is, at times, very funny, which I appreciated to help break up some of the drier bits. Overall, I think if you are really interested in how data is stored and how paranoid humans are about their data storage, you will find this interesting as well. I wish the whole tone had leaned harder into funny/conversational, but I’m happy I read it and learned some new things I’d never given much thought to before.
This is definitely full of information that I had no experience with, the cover and topic just sounded really intriguing. The author is, at times, very funny, which I appreciated to help break up some of the drier bits. Overall, I think if you are really interested in how data is stored and how paranoid humans are about their data storage, you will find this interesting as well. I wish the whole tone had leaned harder into funny/conversational, but I’m happy I read it and learned some new things I’d never given much thought to before.
tormerritt's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World by Brian Michael Murphy is unlike any other Nonfiction book I have read. An absolutely fascinating and philosophical look at data preservation! Immediately, the cover caught my eye. It looks like a 1950s rock album turned apocalyptic and reminded me of Fallout, for my video game lovers out there.
Murphy starts this book off with his experience at the Corbis Film Preservation Facility. Something I did not know, is that CFF is just one of many vaults in Iron Mountain's National Data Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania, but there are currently over 2,600 data centers in the U.S. Some of the data center's clients include Stephen Spielberg, United Airlines, Warner Brothers, HBO, and Nationwide Insurance.
Murphy discusses the term, "Mummy Complex" throughout the book:
"When we preserve, we manifest our Mummy Complex and tell ourselves that no matter what happens in this uncertain world, that no matter who is left alive when a war or economic meltdown or rash of terrorist attacks concludes, a trace of us will remain."
Murphy goes on to say it is not unlike the Egyptains who preserved their organs so that they too, could be used in the afterlife. This is a very philosophical way of looking this topic and that really piqued my interest.
So basically, humans rely on digital infrastructure to preserve, record and redistribute data. Anything from photos, film, books, artifacts, records, etc. Murphy shares many examples of data throughout time. Along with his fantastic writing, he shares some captivating photographs from different archives.
I would reccomend this to anyone interested in a fascinating glimpse in to the past, present, and future of data. A unique and engrossing read!
Murphy starts this book off with his experience at the Corbis Film Preservation Facility. Something I did not know, is that CFF is just one of many vaults in Iron Mountain's National Data Center in Boyers, Pennsylvania, but there are currently over 2,600 data centers in the U.S. Some of the data center's clients include Stephen Spielberg, United Airlines, Warner Brothers, HBO, and Nationwide Insurance.
Murphy discusses the term, "Mummy Complex" throughout the book:
"When we preserve, we manifest our Mummy Complex and tell ourselves that no matter what happens in this uncertain world, that no matter who is left alive when a war or economic meltdown or rash of terrorist attacks concludes, a trace of us will remain."
Murphy goes on to say it is not unlike the Egyptains who preserved their organs so that they too, could be used in the afterlife. This is a very philosophical way of looking this topic and that really piqued my interest.
So basically, humans rely on digital infrastructure to preserve, record and redistribute data. Anything from photos, film, books, artifacts, records, etc. Murphy shares many examples of data throughout time. Along with his fantastic writing, he shares some captivating photographs from different archives.
I would reccomend this to anyone interested in a fascinating glimpse in to the past, present, and future of data. A unique and engrossing read!
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