Residuum

(Missing Image)

Things became important because they required significant effort to design and print books, make films, write symphonies,etc. Each of these forms became gradually easier with use of technology and consequently became less appreciated because they could be generated at will. Now that cameras are cheap and ubiquitous anyone can be a photographer. Rock Band gives us the impression that we are good musicians. These feelings seem righteous, but not relative to what they were 50, or even 10 years ago. We can conjure relevancy whenever we want.

Things achieve importance also by the confluence of interest, demand and financial resources, with the Internet giving it extra resilience. But what if there is no Internet, or a very limited one? And if the photo print, printed book or other old media have already been cashiered to the media scrapyards, there may be huge gaps in cultural memory, or replaced with myths, rumor and conspiracy.

The yardstick with which we measure cultural relevance changes from generation to generation. For example, it is agreed that Beethoven is important just on the basis of its accumulated importance, regardless of our appreciation of his music. It is conceivable that the appreciation or knowledge of Beethoven may become a mere Cliffs Note in another generation. By the same token, Beethoven may enjoy a resurgence in another 20 years, with more people interested in going to the symphony to hear his works. But even if that is true, will the resources and talent be there to meet the demand? We can say the same thing about lots of obsolete industries and professions that rely heavily on honed skills: Without use, they atrophy and die off similar to the way languages die if not used.

The longer something propagates within culture the more it is likely to survive, and become memetic. Even a mere Wikipedia article can preserve cultural icons insofar as the information is easily accessible on the net. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and any additional future technologies will increase the survivability of these memes. Remix Culture has been very instrumental in preservation of certain elements of culture, even though they are usually bereft of original context. While remix may not have historical authority, it at least saves it from complete obscurity.

For all the artifacts that we think will define our culture, in a thousand years may redound to a mere  smattering, pieced together by archaeologists and anthropologists. We now find a vase, a necklace, pottery from an ancient civilization, but in another millennium, we'll find bits of electronics, aluminum parts from cars and appliances, etc. Seeing these types of things in a museum causes one to contemplate what a museum visitor in 3010 will be thinking about when looking at the electronic cuneiform of our culture, oblivious to all the knowledge that once existed in a data cloud, then only referenced in a caption: "Their society relied on the fragile nature of electronic data, and was lost forever. Now we can only posit what might have existed in that cloud." What we stored in the cloud will be the equivalent paradox of the pyramids, with huge parts of the narrative difficult to reconcile, with lots of missing or broken pieces.

What did the people of 2010 think was important? What story will the residuum tell?