Carbon-dating pixels
August 2, 2023•136 words
This week, one of my work projects involves looking at archived educational web pages, and bringing some of them to life.
Looking at the "first published" dates for some of them can be surprising at first. A short learning resource on cytoskeletons... first published in 2002. Still popular enough to attract visitors.
Think about it. 21 years ago, somebody was already building a website. Someone was making decisions, dealing with tech issues, doing the best they could with what they had, and sharing the knowledge which they considered worth sharing. And, several platforms and hundreds of releases later, the web page persists, in all its pixelated glory.
The internet is, simultaneously, old enough to have several layers of archaeology, and young enough to feel like we ain't seen nothing yet.
How does this make you feel?