2026-07-09 19:35 UTC
Random late reply:
I love the word artefact.
To me it's anything that remains IRL
after something is implemented from design.
Like magic items typically complete artefacts because they
are so good at "remaining".
But more typically an artefact is something that that is
incomplete (from the sense of the original design).
Like a fossil is an artefact where nothing is actually
left but the negative of a design.
Digital artefacts are problematic because they
don't have very good "remain" durability.
Like a cdrom or a disk drive is not very durable.
So if you recover one in 100 years you might not
get much. Or you can imagine how fractured and
incomplete what you get could be.
CC: @inscript@merveilles.town @screwlisp@gamerplus.org
Replies (1)
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@vnikolov@ieji.de 2026-07-10 09:40
I am rather partial to the traditional use of the term "artefact". For example, ceramic artefacts are very durable: they can last for thousands of years. Occasionally and with luck, one finds a six-thousand-year-old (say) pot that is almost as good as new. Ceramics is the oldest artificial material, and still going strong. Note that it is silicon-based. P.S. For examples of ceramic text storage media, see Mesopotamian clay tablets from about the Third Millennium and later. See also the Tartaria tablets and the Gradeshnitsa tablet for older examples of proto-writing. #Archaeology #Prehistory @pkw @screwlisp@gamerplus.org @inscript@merveilles.town