github arctic contributor

Some time ago, GitHub let me know that my open source project data-factory had been included in their arctic storage. According to GitHub, the archive has been designed to last at least 1000 years. This has never been done before. Of course this has never been done before.

What a weird thing. To me it feels like I was handed a ticket to a lottery I had not known existed. I’ll take it, but what’s the prize? This project make sense to me only as a proof-of-concept - but what is it trying to prove? what’s the concept? The source code will be useless. By this time next year, most of it will be obsolete. Will it have any historical value? The Long Now Foundation is a partner of the programme and, having been a card-carrying member of the foundation, their point of view is the only one that gives this project any meaning: the point is to make you think of the long term - where long is a period far beyond what the human mind can intuit.

So, if it works, 1000 years from now someone, some… thing?, may read my name from a very cold piece tape. I am not a fan of team sports but I figure this is what it feels like when your team has a win: you have done nothing to earn it, but it feels good nevertheless. It does feel good that GitHub has included my code in their arctic backup. How strange. Thank you GitHub!