Re: [emacs-humanities] Paper Zettelkasten safety [was: Why Emacs-humanities?]

[Paul W. Rankin]

On Thursday, 24 Dec 2020, Göktuğ Kayaalp wrote:

> On 2020-12-23 19:01 +01, M. ‘quintus’ Gülker 
> <post+emacs-humanities@guelker.eu> wrote:
> > Am Dienstag, dem 22. Dezember 2020 schrieb Ihor Radchenko:
> > > I also recommend trying actual paper-based Zettelkasten. It feels
> > > completely different from software solutions.
> > I am currently experimenting with the Zettelkasten concept, but only
> > digitally. What prevents me from trying an analogue, paper-based
> > Zettelkasten is the fear of loss. I mean, how do you make a backup of
> > this thing? What if there is a fire and your invaluable notes are all
> > burnt to ashes? Do you keep your notes in a fire-proof safe?
>
> Scanning and/or transcribing to digital text could be one way to keep
> everything safe and backed-up.  I didn’t try Zettelkasten yet (and I
> doubt I will), but that’s what I did with my notes for a long time: 
> take
> notes on paper or on the book itself, scan, transcribe later.  I still
> do lecture notes the same way (did, before the rona), tho I skip
> scanning.

Often I see the fear expressed that a fire should burn up everything not 
digitally stored. I wonder whether this is a rational fear, or if the 
technology itself asserts an inflated importance to its own medium.

The extreme example of this fear is the person concerned about whether 
their server will survive a nuclear holocaust... Can you imagine treking 
through a radioactive wasteland to meet the only other living human 
you've seen in days and they're excited to show you their blog is still 
online?

If a fire indeed burnt down your house, would your notes be one of the 
things you miss most? Or does the energy invested into tending to your 
digital garden just make it feel that way?

This is not to suggest that the loss of paper notes is insignificant, 
but I'd weigh up the pros/cons. I do most of my writing on a typewriter. 
It is the most joyous way to write. I have stacks of folders of paper 
pages that, in the event of a fire, would be toast. But for me the 
tradeoff is worth it because the experience of writing is so much 
better.