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In 2002, thanks to electronic data processing, the notion of archive has been entirely transformed from the notion of paper records,
tapes and files. |
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And because it is electronic, once produced, it is subject to a life cycle entirely different from that of paper records and files.
Some knowledge (such as government records of e-mail exchanges
and inter-departmental memorandums) are instantly and irrecoverably
lost, while other, utterly trivial data sets continue to float
forever in the infinity of online data space, simply because they
are no longer subject to the Darwinian pressures of finite resources,
competition, and survival. There can be no doubt that the fundamental
shape and quality of the collective social and historical "archive"
are being profoundly transformed as a result.
Sanfort Kwinter, from MUTATIONS