This news came out yesterday that they’ve recovered a bunch of graphics files from Andy Warhol’s old computer. That may seem weird, since he’s more associated with the sixties. But he did live into the eighties, and used a computer.
And get this, it was an Amiga. How cool is that? Well, it's also frustrating, since that means they can't just load it up on Photoshop. It's not going to be in a format that is still used, so some computer students had to get creative to access the images.
This jumped out at me because years ago I read an article warning against this very situation: what if some famous person (in their example, an author) left behind potentially historic works on an obsolete computer system that is no longer used. Are they lost forever?
At the time, I didn't think the concern was warranted. Yes, technologies and file formats may come and go, but it's not like they are completely unique or undocumented. That is, a word processor file for, say, the TRS-80, may no longer be used, but it will be on a standard 5¼" disk, so someone will be able to read it, and with some knowledge of how word processors worked, you would likely be able to translate it into something modern. It won't be easy, but if it's for some important person, they'll be willing to put in the work.
Once again, because I'm living in the future, I can now rule on the accuracy of these concerns. And it looks like I was vindicated. Given sufficient motivation, people were able to make sense of a no-longer-used graphics format. And were rewarded with the surreal moment of loading a file called "campbells.pic".
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