Las civilaciones antiguas nos dejaron sus artifactos. Podemos aprender sobre los griegos y romanos porque escribieron poemas, crearon esculpturas, e hicieron edicifios bonitos. Tambien tenemos las catedrales medievales hermosas y sus pinturas. Tenemos los grandes libros de los ultimos cinco siglos. E incluso tenemos la musica esplendida del pasado. Lo que estoy diciendo es que tenemos sus artifactos duraderos.

La cultura de hoy esta creyendo artifactos efimeros. No creo que los artifactos digitales van a durar mucho tiempo. Dudo que sobrevivan mas de unos pocos siglos. Hay una probabilidad alta de que dentro de quinientos años se pierdan todos, para siempre.

Si unos discos compactos pertenecen, crees que van a ser compatible con lo que tienen en el futuro? Ya casi no es posible usar las cintas de casete. Hay videojuegos que fueron hechos para consolas que ya no se fabrican. No es posible jugarlos hoy dia.

Estamos creyendo artifactos efimeros porque no estamos creyendo arte. La cultura de hoy no es una cultura conectado al pasado. Aunque creemos que hemos sacrificado nuestro coneccion al pasado en cambio por una coneccion al futuro, tampoco no estamos pensando en el futuro. Si estuvieramos pensando en el futuro, estarriamos creyendo artifactos que pueden durar por el tiempo. En vez de eso, estamos creyendo cosas que duran unos dias. Las cosas que sobreviven mas de unos pocos años son raros. La gente por la mayor parte nada mas siguen tratando de mejorar sus vidas individuales, sin un solo pensamiento de sus hijos y descendientes. Se venden sus casas en vez de darselos a sus ninos, y solo para mejorar las ultimas años de sus vidas. No estan pensando en los siglos que vienen. Aquellos no les importan. Lo importante es hoy.

The ancient civilizations left us their artifacts. We are able to learn about the Greeks and the Romans because they wrote poems, created sculptures, and made beautiful buildings. We also have the gorgeous medieval cathedrals and their paintings. We have the great books of the past five centuries. And we even have the magnificent music of the past. What I'm saying is that we have their durable artifacts.

The culture of today is creating Ephemeral Artifacts. I don't think the digital artifacts will last a long time. I doubt they will survive more than a few centuries. There's a high probability that within five hundred years they will all be lost, forever.

If a few CDs remain, do you believe that they will be compatible with whatever technology they have in the future? It's already almost impossible to use cassette tapes. There are video games that were made for consoles that are no longer manufactured. It's not possible to play them today.

We are creating Ephemeral Artifacts because we aren't creating art. The culture of today is not a culture connected to the past. Even though we believe that we have sacrificed our connection to the past in exchange for a connection to the future, we don't have a connection to the future, either. If we were thinking about the future, we would be creating artifacts that could withstand time. Instead of that, we are creating things that last a few days. The things that survive more than a few years are rare. For the most part, people continue trying to improve their own lives, without a single thought of their children and descendants. They sell their houses instead of giving them to their children, and only to improve the last years of their lives. They aren't thinking about the centuries to come. Those don't matter. The important thing is today.