Ecology of Longevity
the relevance of evolutionary theory for digital preservation
Peter . Doorn @ dans.knaw.nlDirk . Roorda @ dans.knaw.nl
http://www.dans.knaw.nl/en
Sustainabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf
the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time
caveats
✔ parallel patterns✖ prediction
✔ exploration✖ scientifically tested✔ partially testable
Darwin
populations of organisms
in an environment
living and reproducing
imperfect inheritance of traits
environment cannot sustain offspring
individuals have different survival chances
natural selection of “the fittest”
✖Mendel ✖genetics ✖DNA
Lamarck
inheritance
of acquired properties
much speedier evolution
valid for cultural inheritance/heredity
Modern synthesis
heredity works through genes,
collectively: DNA
DNA is copied, recombined
damaged, repaired, mutated
At the core of life is information processing.
ParadoxesLessons
(i) individuals don’t survive, the system does
(ii) survival is an unintentional result
(iii) there is no long-term, only short-term
... with extensions ...
complexity sciencesociology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_(sociology)
patterns and processes of
individuals versus communities
economy
psychology
mechanics
... biology!
M. Mitchell Waldrop
Critical Events in Evolving Networks - http://www.creen.org/
Back from the Brink - http://ideas.repec.org/p/dgr/umamer/2000005.html
evolution in ictcomputing capacity
mainframe batch
personal computer
cloud
softwaredos-windows-androidbasic – pascal – javawordperfect – ODF - TEI
networkingdevice
organisationworld-wide
hardware tube
transistor chipmedia
numberstext
imageaudiovideo
simulation
strategies to preserve
• emulation• preserve the environment of the data
• migration• adapt the data to the environment
Parallel 1: use and retain
current digital preservation thought
first preserve, then re-use
perverse consequence:
preserving too well prevents re-use!
evolution gets rid of unused functions
color view - eyes - odor receptors
evolutionary preservation thought
first re-use, then preserve
Parallel 2: copies and evolvability
copies are free to evolve
originals are fixed
evolution is not interested in originals
make copies in evolvable formats
migration preferable over emulation
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000112
Parallel 3: Sexual Selectionindicators
of
survival
success
hard-to-fakeconsiderable investment
promote mating
Paradigms: bio - techpart constructionmachine
assembly lineidentical copies
refactoring market
Paradigms: analog - digital
Toy ecosystem
clouds= { workspaces }
works= { copies }
users= owners of workspaces
http://www.duraspace.org/duracloud.php
Infrastructure rules• I access therefore I copy
• accessing a work is copying it to your own workspace
• the cloud may de-duplicate identical copies in different workspaces• for storage optimisation
• the cloud may re-duplicate copies• for access optimisation
• the cloud extracts metadata from works and has mechanisms to search
Usability rules
• the cloud provides a linking system between works• not between copies• intelligent persistent identifiers
• the cloud maintains a system of access rights• which is respected by the linking behaviour
Economic rules
• users pay for their workspace• for storage capacity multiplied by time:• GByte * month
• users pay for making a copy of a work• this fee will come to the good of current
owners of a copy of the same work• divided in equal parts• this fee is not for intellectual property, but is
purely infrastructural
Preservation rules
• a preservation institution is just a workspace user
• all users may request from the cloud• the number of extant copies of works
• a preservation institution specialises in:• rare works!
Incentives for preservation
• adding value to a work implies• more access => more income
• keeping only rare works implies• every access is lucrative
• a surviving preservation institution keeps• looking for value enhancement• improving usability of its resources• throwing away abundant resources
Ecology of sustainable information
• financial incentive to preserve• optimisations in value / cost• data use is instrumental in preservation• {actors} ≈ {stakeholders}
it is already faintly realistic
Simulation
• play with the monetary parameters• study models with interesting behaviour• maybe there are emergent patterns• hopefully meaningful in the real world
Evolution and Digital Preservation
a preservation institution
helps rare works to survive
and thus sustains its own survival
the Future is in the Clouds
Thank You