Description: "Locked away in refrigerated vaults, sanitized by gas chambers, and secured within bombproof caverns deep under mountains are America's most prized materials: the ever-expanding collection of records that now accompany each of us from birth to death. This data complex backs up and protects our most vital information against decay and destruction, and yet it binds us to corporate and government institutions whose power is also preserved in its bunkers, infrastructures, and sterilized spaces. This book traces the emergence of the data complex in the early twentieth century and guides readers through its expansion in a series of moments when Americans thought they were living just before the end of the world"--
Brief description: Brian Michael Murphy is Associate Professor of American Studies at Williams College and Faculty Associate at The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Review Quotes:
"Provocative. . . . Murphy is a witty writer--and a 'media archaeologist'!--who travels deep underground to see for himself the weirdest and most fanatical efforts to preserve records. . . An engaging tour of the crises that propelled each new wave of preservation anxiety and the attendant technological advancements--from time capsules to wax cylinders to DNA-based memory chips."--Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World