The Truth is Paywalled But the Lies Are Free: Notes on why I hoard data

[grarpamp]

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/i7uvve/the_truth_is_paywalled_but_the_lies_are_free/

https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/bavaria-to-ban-printing-of-hitler-book-mein-kampf-after-copyright-expires-a-938421-amp.html
https://www.schoyencollection.com/23-religions/extinct-religions/23-1-sumerian/gift-adab-priestess-ms-3029

"
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-truth-is-paywalled-but-the-lies-are-free

I came across a beautifully written article by Nathan J. Robinson
about how quality work costs money to access and propaganda is freely
given.

The article makes some good points on why it is important for data to
be more free, which I will summarize below:

    1) Nobody is allowed to build a giant free database of everything
human beings have ever produced.
    2) Copyright law can be an intensive restriction on the freedom of
speech and determines what information you can (and not) share with
others.
    3) The concept of a public community library needs to evolve. As
books, and other content move online, our communities have as well.
    4) Human creativity is phenomenally leashed when human knowledge is limited.
    5) Free and affordable libraries are dying.

This got me thinking about why I care about hoarding data. Data is
invaluable! A digital dark age is forming around us and we can do what
we can to prevent it. A lot of people here will hoard data for
personal reasons. I hoard data for others.

The things the people in this subreddit hoard whether it be movies,
Youtube, pictures, news articles, websites, all of it is culture. Its
history.

Even memes and social media are not crap. Even literal shit is
valuable to a scatologist. Can you imagine if we were able to find the
preserved excrement from a long extinct animal? What one sees as shit,
is so much more to someone else who is trained and educated. Its data.
The internet and social media around us is Art and Culture from our
time. This is history for the future to use and learn.

Things go viral for a reason. The information shared in the jokes and
content are snapshots of the public's thinking and perspective on the
world. Invaluable data for future scholars.

Imagine we found a Viking warship and on it was a perfectly preserved
book of jokes. Sure many at the time might have thought they were shit
jokes made at the expense of others. But we would learn so much about
their customs, society, and the evolution of human civilization if
this book was preserved and found. And the book's contents were made
available to the world.

Also a lot of political content is shared on social media and comment
sections as well. Our understanding of politics will be carved up in
units of memes, and shared on thousands of siloed paywalled platforms
and mediums over time. And our role is to collect and consolidate
them.

This is but a small sliver of the documentation of how our world is
changing around us. And we can do our part to save and make free to
others as much of it as we can.
"