Imagine a future where the integrated technology that we use today gets damaged and separated. Imagine the Internet no longer works and computers are a rarity. A few people stored different technilogical items such as computers and the knowledge to turn the items on is passed down from generation to generation.

In the future someone may pull out a web server that is configured to host various web sites. A lot of web sites are dependent on other computers such as database servers. If the whole system is not preserved the web server will not respond as is was meant to.

Historians may examine the files that they have access to such as image files, text files, programs and settings, error messages. They would index everything they can access. They would print off a list of all paths, files, and contents.   Some web sites are built with human readable code that can easily be modified. Academics would work to get sites in working condition so they could be veiwed as closely to the way they were meant to be viewed in the past.

In the distant future the computers would begin to break down. The people in that time would record the functioning of the computers to a format they use.  Something like video.

When all the computers are gone people would go back to the videos and try to understand what the computers did. They would loose understanding of what the programs were for and how they were used to operate the computer.  English would no longer be spoken and people would not be able to read what is on screen. They would not know that a physical mouse was used to allow the opperator to select different screen elements. They may believe that we used the computer for religious ceremonies where users would sit in front of them and watch the moving objects in order to induce a connection with the divine.

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