I spent some time searching (so far in vain) for episodes of an old CBC (and later, TV Ontario) podcast called Search Engine. It was hosted by Jesse Brown who now runs his own network, CANADALAND. It was all about the internet and its effects on the culture and politics of the day. It ran from 2007-2012, first as a radio show, then as a CBC podcast and finally as a TVO podcast. I would LOVE to listen to it again.
Apparently 8 years ago is ~10,000 years in internet time. The pages the files were hosted at seem long-dead. This is very frustrating, but also makes me think how crazy it is that so much of everything is at our fingertips that when you encounter something you CAN’T find instantly? It is INFURIATING. I now find myself wondering if I shouldn’t make personal backups of all the various podcasts I like? It seems crazy, given how unlikely it is that I would want to listen to most of these things more than once. Yet, I wouldn’t have predicted I’d want to listen to Search Engine again but here we are! (Incidentally, if you know where I can find these episodes? Holla at ya boy).
There’s something in me that can’t stand the idea of something, no matter how stupid or obscure, being gone. Archiving all these bits and bobs of our digital culture feels just as vital and important to me as the work that goes into physical artifact archives and restoration. Someone needs to save our past and our present from our future.
This ties in with what I was thinking about yesterday about digital content. Whether it’s a library of ebooks, season of television or even a free podcast you streamed, when that company decides it can increase revenues that quarter by 1/8th of 1% by shutting down the server that file lived on? It’s gone. Hell, maybe the hobbyest who created that content eventually just stopped paying for that space and forgot about it when they moved on to a new enthusiasm. I want to protect that stuff. Future generations deserve, no, need to hear the terrible weekly comic-book review podcast I did in the mid-to-late-oughts, damn it!
All these… podcasts… will be lost in time. Like… tears… In rain.
Probably time to donate to the Internet Archive and go and buy some more hard drives.
Currently Playing: 2814 – 新しい日の誕生 (Birth of a New Day)
Currently Reading: HEAVY WEATHER, Bruce Sterling (GR)
joezone 