undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjfoutz10y ago0 comments

Of course, the real one will be blown up, sooooooo. Hanging on to the copy of the copy of the copy worked ok for books. it's infinitely better than nothing.

0 comments

roywiggins10y ago

There's an awful lot of value in a particular book-as-object that you lose in a copy, especially in pre-Gutenburg manuscripts:

- What script was it written in?

- How was it bound?

- What shape and size is it?

- Huge roomy margins or small tiny margins?

- Is it actually a palimpsest with another text underneath?

- Who owned it?

- How old is it?

And so on. If someone just writes down the text and burns the book, you've preserved the text but thrown away an awful lot about the people that produced and used the book.

A 3D scan might preserve 100% of aspect A, but 0% of aspect B, in which case it's exactly as bad as no scan if what you care about is aspect B.

jfoutzOP10y ago

Just so i understand, your point is it's much better to have nothing, than having a poor copy of the original object?

That makes, well, not much sense to me. but ok.

roywiggins10y ago

I mean that a lot of circumstances, having a picture/scan/copy only slightly diminishes the loss if the object is destroyed, and the existence of 3D scans etc shouldn't be confused with preservation of the original.

Obviously, take pictures and make 3D scans of everything! It's a great way to make unique objects available (to some extent) across the globe. But they're more aids to study than actual backups. Objects haven't been "saved" by being scanned; they're saved when they're actually preserved. A 3D scan of the Buddhas of Bamiyan would have only kinda sorta have ameliorated their loss.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

roywiggins10y ago

There's an awful lot of value in a particular book-as-object that you lose in a copy, especially in pre-Gutenburg manuscripts:

- What script was it written in?

- How was it bound?

- What shape and size is it?

- Huge roomy margins or small tiny margins?

- Is it actually a palimpsest with another text underneath?

- Who owned it?

- How old is it?

And so on. If someone just writes down the text and burns the book, you've preserved the text but thrown away an awful lot about the people that produced and used the book.

A 3D scan might preserve 100% of aspect A, but 0% of aspect B, in which case it's exactly as bad as no scan if what you care about is aspect B.

jfoutzOP10y ago

Just so i understand, your point is it's much better to have nothing, than having a poor copy of the original object?

That makes, well, not much sense to me. but ok.

roywiggins10y ago

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse