On January 26, 2016, Vint Cerf of Google and Bruce Cole of the Ethics and Policy Center together gave the The 22nd Adams Lecture at San Diego State University. I’ll offer a brief summary with comments below. Here is the full video:
- Vint Cerf’s main concern was the fragility of digital content. A notable quote:
We have evidence that a printed photograph can last for 150 years or more, but we do not have any evidence that a digital photograph can last more than a decade or two.
- Here some of his concerns, bulleted in one of his slides:
- Especially troublesome from an archiving perspective is software (executable content).
- Similarly Bruce Cole raises concerns about the administration and funding of libraries and educational institutions in a digital age where sometimes ‘digital’ and ‘virtual’ can be seen as routes to cost-cutting.
- Surprisingly Cole said something to the effect of, Wikipedia looks like the future of humanities research. I hope not! I rather see Wikipedia as a distribution channel for the popularisation of research, but not much more.