500 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 12 Sep 2023 \ on: Can web applications be built to last 10,000 years? tech
I think it is pretty impossible to say yes to this with any serious thought.
- There are no perfect apps.
- Computers haven't existed long enough to give us the context needed to make such predictions
- History shows us that mediums change over time.
- Free markets are highly hard to predict (not saying any of us live under entirely free markets now)
- We really haven't even figured out preserving data for 10,000 years in digital form let alone applications.
Interesting question/thought experiment. I don't think we have web applications that can last 100 years yet. At least not with people supporting them and evolving them.
If I were to try to build something with longevity in mind I would focus on isolating anything that is likely to change from things that are more constant. Make those less stable parts easy to replace. Break down the application to components that work together. Simplicity and isolating complexity would have to be priorities.
About your point 5.. We kind of did.. using quartz cristal.. but i wonder if in 10.000 we wont loose the tech to read it after so much time
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Thank you for your in depth consideration!
Are we so sure there no perfect apps? What about crocodiles, sharks, tardigrades? They have survived millions of years. What about Skyrim? Why is it still so playable? What about UNIX?
Computers have existed since the first RNA code was made that happened to fold into a structure that "read" other RNA codes. Maybe this can imply something for web apps, how do we allow their code to replicate and mutate? Makes me think of forking in git.
I would focus on isolating anything that is likely to change from things that are more constant
Agreed. Going back to the genetic analogy, DNA replicates itself incredibly perfectly, it allows the "app" to be stable. Like english, it has redundancy so mispelsling a piece doesn't usually change it's interpretation. But some misspellings have huge effect. "Let's eat, Grandpa!" / "Let's eat Grandpa!"
Expression is at the same time dependent on current environment. In a 10,000 year web app, maybe the coding should be partly "in the eye of the beholder (client)" and partly "despite the client".
Interesting stuff :) Thanks for engaging
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