diff --git a/content/md/004_backup.md b/content/md/004_backup.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2abfaa7 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/md/004_backup.md @@ -0,0 +1,187 @@ +# Who Backup Whom? + +> @published 2019/07/03, 13:00 {.published} + +Among publishers and readers is common to heard about “digital +copies.” This implies that ebooks tend to be seen as backups +of printed books. How the former became a copy of the original---even +tough you first need a digital file in order to print---goes +something like this: + +1. Digital files (+++DF+++s) with appropiate maintenance could + have higher probabilities to last longer that its material + peer. +2. Physical files (+++PF+++s) are limited due geopolitical + issues, like cultural policies updates, or due random events, + like environment changes or accidents. +3. _Therefore_, +++DF+++s are backups of +++PF+++s because _in + theory_ its dependence is just technical. + +The famous digital copies arise as a right of private copy. What +if one day our printed books are ban or burn? Or maybe some rain +or coffee spill fuck our books collection. Who knows, +++DF+++s +seem more reliable. + +But there are a couple suppositions in this argument. (1) The +technology behind +++DF+++s in one way or the other will always +make data flow. Maybe this is because (2) one characteristic---part +of its “nature”---of information is that nobody can stop its +spread. This could also implies that (3) technology can always +destroy any kind of digital rights management system. + +Certanly some dudes are gonna be able to hack the locks but at +a high cost: every time each [cipher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher) +is revealed, another more complex is on the way---_Barlow [dixit](https://www.wired.com/1994/03/economy-ideas/)_. +We cannot trust that our digital infraestructure would be designed +with the idea of free share in mind… Also, how can we probe information +wants to be free without relying in its “nature” or making it +some kind of autonomous subject? + +Besides those issues, the dynamic between copies and originals +creates an hierarchical order. Every +++DF+++ is in a secondary +position because it is a copy. In a world full of things, materiality +is and important feature for commons and goods; for several people ++++PF+++s are gonna be preferred because, well, you can grasp +them. + +Ebook market shows that the hierarchy is at least shading. For +some ereaders +++DF+++s are now in the top of the pyramid. We +could say so by the follow argument: + +1. +++DF+++s are way more flexible and easy to share. +2. +++PF+++s are very static and not easy to access. +3. _Therefore_, +++DF+++s are more suitable for use than +++PF+++s. + +Suddenly, +++PF+++s become hard copies that are gonna store data +as it was published. Its information is in disposition to be +extracted and processed if need it. + +Yeah, we also have a couple assumptions here. Again (1) we rely +on the stability of our digital infraestructure that it would +allow us to have access to +++DF+++s no matter how old they are. +(2) Reader's priorities are over files use, not on its preservation +and reproduction (+++P&R+++). (3) The argument presume that backups +are motionless information, where bookshelves are fridges for +later-to-use books. + +The optimism about our digital infraestructure is too damn high. +Commonly we see it as a technology that give us access to zillions +of files and not as a +++P&R+++ machinery. This could be problematic +because some times file formats intented for use aren't the most +suitable for +++P&R+++. For example, the use of +++PDF+++s as +some kind of ebook. Giving to much importance to reader's priorities +could lead us to a situation where the only way to process data +is by extracting it again from hard copies. When we do that we +also have an other headache: fixes on the content have to be +add to the last available hard copy edition. But, can you guess +where are all the fixes? Probably not. Maybe we should start +to think about backups as some sort of _rolling update_. + +![Programando Libreros while she scans books which +++DF+++s are not suitable for +++P&R+++ or are simply nonexistent; can you see how it is not necessary to have a fucking nice scanner?](../../../img/p004_i001.jpg) + +As we imagine---and started to live in---scenarios of highly +controlled data transfer, we have to picture a situation where +for some reason our electric power is off or running low. In +that context all the strenghts of +++DF+++s become pointless. +They may not be used. They may not spread. Right now for us is +hard to imagine. Generation after generation the storaged +++DF+++s +in +++HDD+++s would be inherit with the hope of being used again. +But over time those devices with our cultural heritage would +become in rare objects without any apparent utility. + +The aspects of +++DF+++s that made us see the fragility of +++PF+++s +would dissapear in its concealment. Can we still talk about information +if it is just potential information---we know the data is there, +but it is inaccessible because we don't have the means for view +them? Or does information already implies the technical resources +for its access---i.e. there is not information without a subject +with technical skills to extract, process and use the data? + +When we usually talk about information we already suppose is +there, but many times is not accessible. So the idea of potential +information could be counterintuitive. If the information isn't +actual we just consider that it doesn't exist, not that it is +on some potential stage. + +As our technology is developing we assume that we would always +have _the possibility_ of better ways to extract or undestand +data. Thus, that there are bigger chances to get new kinds of +information---and take a profit from it. Preservation of data +relies between those possibilities, as we usually backup files +with the idea that we could need it and go back again. + +Our world become more complex by new things forthcoming to us, +most of the times as new characteristics of things we already +know. Preservation policies implies an epistemic optimism and +not only a desire to keep alive or incorrupt our heritage. We +wouldn't backup data if we don't already belive we could need +it in the future. + +With this exercise could be clear a potentially paradox of +++DF+++s. +(1) More accessibility tends to require more technical infrastructure. +This (2) could imply major technical dependence that subordinate +accessibility of information to the disposition of technical +means. _Therefore_, we achive a situation where (3) more accesibility +is equal to more technical infrastructure and---as we see nowadays---dependence. + +Open access to knowledge involves at least some minimum technical +means. Without that, we can't really talk about accessibility +of information. Contemporary open access possibilities are restricted +to an already technical dependence because we given a lot of +attention in the flexibility that +++DF+++s offer us for _its +use_. In a world without electric power, this kind of accessibility +becomes narrow and an useless effort. + +![Programando Libreros and Hackblib while they work on a project intended to +++P&R+++ old Latin American cifi books; sometimes a V-shape scanner is required when books are very fragile.](../../../img/p004_i002.jpg) + +So, _who backup whom?_ In our actual world, where geopolitics +and technical means restrics the flow of data and people at the +same time it defends internet access as a human right---some +sort of neo-Enlightenment discourse---, +++DF+++s are lifesavers +in a condition where we don't have more ways to move around or +scape. Let's nor forget that open access of data can be a course +of action to improve as species but also a method to perpetuate +social conditions. + +Not a lot of people are as privilege as us when we talk about +access to technical means. Even more concerning, they are hommies +with disabilities that made very hard for them to access information +albeit they have those means. Isn't it funny that our ideas as +file contents can move more “freely” than us? I desire more technological +developments for freedom of +++P&R+++ and not just for use as +enjoyment---no matter is for intelectual or consumption motives. +I want us to be free. But sometimes use of data, +++P&R+++ of +information and people mobility freedoms don't get along. + +With +++DF+++s we achive more independence in file use because +once it is save, it could spread. It doesn't matter we have religious +or political barries; the battle take place mainly in technical +grounds. But this doesn't made +++DF+++s more autonomous in its ++++P&R+++. Neither implies we can archive personal or comunity +freedoms. They are objects. _They are tools_ and whoever use +them better, whoever owns them, have more power. + +With +++PF+++s we can have more +++P&R+++ accessibility. We can +do whatever we want with them: extract their data, process it +and let it free. But only if we are their owners. Often that +is not the case, so +++PF+++s tend to have more restricted access +for its use. And, again, this doesn't mean we can be free. There +is not any cause and effect between what object made possible +and how much subjects want to be free. They are tools, they are +not master or slaves, just means for whoever use them. + +We need +++DF++s and +++PF+++s as backups and as everyday objects +of use. The act of backup is a dynamic category. Backed up files +are not inert and they aren't only a substrate waiting to be +use. Sometimes we are going to use +++PF+++s because +++DF+++s +have been corrupted or its technical infrastructure has been +dissapear. In other occasions we would use +++DF+++s when +++PF+++s +have been destoyed or limited. + +So the struggle about backups it is not around the “incorporeal” +realm of information, nor on the tecnhinal means that made data +possible, neither in the laws that transform production into +property. The way we backup things shows a lot about how we see +us. Make backups it isn't an ordinary monotonous process. + +![Due restringed access to +++PF+++s, sometimes is neccesary a portable V-shape scanner; this model allows us to handle damaged books while we can also storage it in a bagpack.](../../../img/p004_i003.jpg) diff --git a/img/p004_i002.jpg b/img/p004_i002.jpg index e1e6304..1d4b88b 100644 Binary files a/img/p004_i002.jpg and b/img/p004_i002.jpg differ diff --git a/img/p004_i003.jpg b/img/p004_i003.jpg index 1d4b88b..cf24120 100644 Binary files a/img/p004_i003.jpg and b/img/p004_i003.jpg differ diff --git a/img/p004_i004.jpg b/img/p004_i004.jpg deleted file mode 100644 index cf24120..0000000 Binary files a/img/p004_i004.jpg and /dev/null differ