Explore a digitized collection of doomed Everest climber's letters home

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/everest-mountaineer-george-mallorys-letters-have-been-digitized-for-posterity/

by thunderbong • 2 years ago

36 28 2 years ago

onion2k• 2 years ago

We've lost the romance of letter writing in the digital age. There are a few diehards still trying, but I imagine climbers these days send and email or a WhatsApp message. It doesn't have the same power unless someone took the physical effort to put pen to paper somehow.

If, for some odd reason, we lose access to the archives of tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook updates, etc, there'll be a giant void in the history of what people did in the past 30 years. It's ironic, because while we have those things we have far more access to what people thought than we've ever had in the past.

TaylorAlexander2• 2 years ago

I got in to typewriters last summer. They’re pretty neat machines! It’s a single purpose writing machine, and everything you type is immediately put to page. It does interesting things for writing flow and style. It’s also very cute for writing personal notes to friends.

bowysinclair• 2 years ago

I think its trippy how I ran into your comment on this post. Its Ricky your cousin your dads wifes grandson

dewey• 2 years ago

I’ve met a friend recently and while shopping he picked up some paper for writing letters. He told me about his tradition of writing one handwritten letter to his partner once a month. I’ve never thought about that before but it sounded like a very nice idea.

dieselgate• 2 years ago

It’s trading off longevity for immediacy in my opinion. Was visiting family recently and spent some time looking through old photo albums which was nice.

jajko• 2 years ago

I am sure this law/rule has even its own name, its just logical result of easiness and overabundance of something, that then becomes worthless. The more effort you put into anything, the more value it has.

Plus longevity of digital vs analog, yeah I am not holding my breath some future archaeologists will have much of our digital waste available.

vineyardmike• 2 years ago

We've lost the romance of letter writing in the digital age. There are a few diehards still trying, but

I bet it's more than you think. My partner still writes correspondences on paper to old college friends, and they write back. We wrote each other letters during early courtship, even after we lived together. Occasionally, I'll still find a nice handwritten letter on my desk.

If, for some odd reason, we lose access to the archives of ...

The library of congress used to preserve old tweets. I suspect more than a few individuals have archives of miscellaneous digital content. I know I'm prone to screenshot things (even by mistake) and then just let them pile up in my photos, and occasionally happen upon something I've seen prior. I encourage everyone to save things, even via screenshot.

t_mann• 2 years ago

I highly doubt that there'll be any void of artifacts from our age. I'd venture a bet that the vast majority of preservation efforts (of present-day live) undertaken in the cumulative history of humankind were/are being done by people alive today. I think it would suit us well to take ourselves a bit less important in the grand picture.

pavel_lishin• 2 years ago

If, for some odd reason, we lose access to the archives of tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook updates, etc, there'll be a giant void in the history of what people did in the past 30 years.

That's also true if we lose access to the archives of old letters.

junon2• 2 years ago

I don't normally complain about the sites themselves, but there is an interspersed ad in this article with a fully interactive 3D model that captures swipes (couldn't scroll past it) and makes my mobile browser lag so bad I could hardly use my phone.

I'm getting so tired, folks. So, so tired.

ycombinete2• 2 years ago

Why aren’t you using an adblocker?

junon2• 2 years ago

Mobile adblockers have never worked for me.

DrStartup• 2 years ago

The ads are so bad. These sites are in their own doom spiral. We need more revenue due to falling readership. I know more ads!

I can’t wait to filter the entire internet with on device AI.

The universal site & ad blocker.

Inb4, iOS safari blockers suck or I haven’t found a good one. Biggest benefit of side loading is compile your own Firefox and run unlock origin.

christophilus2• 2 years ago

Brave on iOS is like magic. My favorite thing might be the ability to download YouTube videos for offline and ad-free playback.

ornornor2• 2 years ago

The only thing that works well for me on iOS is nextdns. Works with any browser and most apps, I only see ads in the YT app that I don’t use as a result.

Maybe that will be useful to you?

anshulbhide• 2 years ago

Highly recommend reading Everest Inc.

GolfPopper• 2 years ago

Did they consent to having their letters distributed to the entire public? Because this sounds a hell of a lot like prying into personal affairs I have no business with. (No, I did not follow the link.)

And before anyone says, "But History!" I think there ought to be a principle operating here akin to the old security example of the difference between a database police can go make a request of, and ubiquitous robots with a data connections that instantly scan every plate in the state and generate a real-time map of where every car is, and who owns it. I don't see anything wrong with (presumably) old letters being stored in an archive somewhere, where those with a interest and motivation can trade some of their time for access. But throwing them out there for everyone on Earth (unless the authors gave their consent for that in advance) does not feel right.

water-your-self• 2 years ago

This man died in 1924 and his body was found in 1999.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 2 years ago

I agree in general but if they died 100 years ago I'm okay. 50 years may not be enough. I'm not sure where I'd draw the exact line

Explore a digitized collection of doomed Everest climber's letters home

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