Category
Keeping information has always meant choosing a physical form for it: ink on paper, holes in cardboard, magnetized coatings, or electric charge trapped in a chip. This category compares those forms and the habits that grew up around them.
Printed Encyclopedias vs Digital Knowledge Platforms looks at reference knowledge, while Punch Cards vs Solid-State Storage and Floppy Disks vs Cloud Storage look at how data itself is held. Capacity is the obvious story, but the more revealing ones are about access, permanence, and who can read what you have kept. Some formats needed a machine and a technician; others need only a network connection and an account.
The guiding question: How did the places and formats we use to keep information change, and what happened to permanence and access along the way?
Information Storage
Floppy Disks compared with Cloud Storage
The save icon still shows a 3.5-inch disk that many users have never held. Floppy disks put data in your hand; cloud storage keeps…
Information Storage
Printed Encyclopedias compared with Digital Knowledge Platforms
Every encyclopedia promises to gather what is known in one place, and every one falls out of date the day it is finished. This…
Information Storage
Punch Cards compared with Solid-State Storage
One card, one row of holes, roughly one line of text. Today's flash storage holds vastly more in something smaller than a stick of…
