Links are critical to deep-time knowledge preservation

The Internet Archive is a critical piece of the internet. By recording the past, it allows us to understand the past and therefore the future, preventing deception and allowing culture to grow and develop in deep time.

A critical part of the Internet Archive is recording and preserving links. When a link to a website dies for whatever reason, but then is preserved, we keep the underlying knowledge, since knowledge is distributed, just like how awareness of the environment is somehow kept in the patterns of neuron connections, not stored someone inside specific neurons.

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Digital neurons store information patterns in the connections. Biological neurons are more complex, storing information in connections, cellular state, frequency of activation, hormones, among other places. But likely the most important part is the connections between neurons.

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This is a massive simplification, since there are many examples e.g. snail neurons that store information in the neuronal cells in complex ways [1]

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Links that store state in the URL help preserve websites through deep time

The more state is stored in the URL directly, the more the website is able to be preserved and also retain functionality.

This has a number of advantages:

• The user state is stored in the URL and is:
  • user editable (in the future)
  • machine readable
• The origin can be modified dynamically to reroute to domains that are active, without modifying the core state (in the hash parameters of the URL)
• Much easier to store, since a URL is just a string
  • Assuming that the core libraries, assets, and modules are preserved, but that’s a separate concern
• More complex applications can be preserved as metapages, therefore allowing someone in the future to access a complex workflow, and use it immediately

References:

[1] Snails reveal how two brain cells can hold the key to decision making

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160603071655.htm