Two days ago, a headline caught my attention: Rogue
Scientists Race to Save Climate Data from Trump. It
describes how around “60 hackers, scientists, archivists, and
librarians” were working together to document climate data. Their
fear was that this information would be altered or disappear once
the new administration takes over the presidency. The very fact
that this group felt compelled to fear the loss of scientific data
seems like something out of a dystopian novel. I tip my hat to the
fact that they brought in librarians to help preserve the
sanctity of the information.
That’s where the
librarians came in. In order to be used by future researchers—or
possibly used to repopulate the data libraries of a future, more
science-friendly administration—the data would have to be untainted
by suspicions of meddling. –Rogue
Scientists Race to Save Climate Data from
Trump.
Do I really feel that
information shared and published will disappear in America? No, I
am hopeful that the power of the archival properties and interwoven
elements of the heart of the internet will protect the erasing
of data. I believe that the veracity of
information will win in an educated, aware society (as I
referenced in my January
2nd post). But, the themes and the future painted in
Orwell’s 1984 comes to mind in regards to the
permeability of reality:
And when memory failed
and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of
the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to
be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could
exist, any standard against which it could be
tested.
We must hold tight to the standard of
recorded record. Major changes have happened on the White House
website, which is not unexpected. While transitioning from one web
host or website to another, pages are sometimes lost and
information not carried over. I’ve done that when redesigning my
own pages and blogs. I am … hopeful … that the issues are not
being erased, just that new resources have not yet been published.
I did not watch the changes on the White House page eight years
ago. I will say that I do not know how previous transitions have
progressed. Today we live in a very digitally connected world where
changes are easily documented. There are recorded instances of
disappearing or contradicting of recorded information
that happened during the transition of power this week.
- Trump
White House takes down website pages about
disabilities – Washington Post - Interior
Department reactivates Twitter accounts after shutdown following
inauguration – Washington Post - White
House press secretary attacks media for accurately reporting
inauguration crowds – CNN - Trump’s
White House Website Takes Down Official Pages on Civil Rights,
Climate Change, LGBT Rights – People
I believe that memory will prevail and falsified
records will be revealed for what they are. We must continue to
record and remember. “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it” -The Life of Reason
Learn more about this quote at
http://www.iep.utm.edu/santayan/
Your Perspective: What shifting of the truth or
misdirected information have you seen this week?