I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.
That’s a Mistborn reference isn’t it? That sentence seems familiar
It is
“What’s a few words changed here and there among friends?” - Ruin, probably.
I am afraid, however, that all I have known - that my story - will be forgotten. I am afraid for the world that is to come. Afraid that Alendi will fail. Afraid of a doom brought by the Deepness.
Metals oxidize. You need a ceramic encased in a carefully constructed glass.
It’s a reference to the Mistborn series of books.
Would papyrus sealed in clay jars in a cave high in the mountains above a dead sea be okay?
If you are lucky
Tungsten carbide in high-silica glass will probably outlast humanity by a significant margin.
Until someone discovers your cache of tungsten carbide and sells it for scrap to be turned into ball bearings and drill bits.
The cap stones of the pyramids were taken for building construction. The rare velum paper with ancient Greek mathematics was bleached and used for daily prayers.
Perhaps the copper complaint survived because it was on worthless dry clay.
Depending on who you listen to, piss in the snow might outlast us after the next election.
If you live somewhere it still actually snows anyway.
Nah Ruin will change the ceramic
I knew this was going to be top comment.
Can steel really be trusted if it can be rusted?
Here’s the relevant xkcd.
I thought you would have linked 1683: Digital Data
The last one is actually a real example, right?
It’s a real reference.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-nāṣir
“Inscribed on it is a complaint to Ea-nāṣir about a copper delivery of the incorrect grade and issues with another delivery”
It worked perfectly 3,774 years later and people still don’t want to buy copper from this guy.
Fun Fact:
Native Americans near Eagle Lake in Wisconsin were some of the earliest metal workers in the world, what is known as the Old Copper Culture. We have copper artifacts from them that are at least 8500 years old.
We have arrowheads, knives, axes, etc, but metal working just… Died out.
The leading theory?
The copper was too pure. Various impurities are what give copper strength, it’s quite malleable as a pure metal.
They were doing all this work to make tools not significantly better than flint, so when the easiest sources dried up they just stopped bothering.
The earliest bronze examples are actually made from a copper ore that included arsenic or tin already, and natural ores that include enough of either are quite rare, and they just weren’t available to the Old Copper Culture, and without that initial accident of geology they had no way of knowing that adding specific impurities would make the metal stronger, or even a tin mine for it to happen through experimentation.
TL;DR don’t be too mean to Ea-Nasir, guy’s copper might have just been too pure. Like you’ve never seen a customer ask for a different product than they actually wanted!
I was just reading about how Michigan had a volcano which deposited large amounts of nearly pure copper, and even some naturally alloyed bronze.
Geological activity gouged some crazy deep holes and dumped everything on top. Basically the entire upper peninsula was scooped out of lake Superior, flipped over and dumped on the ground, which is why there’s a bunch of metal everywhere up there.
Also some of the oldest exposed stone on the planet. Nothing too useful about it beyond “my, that’s a very old stone”, but it’s a vaguely fun fact.
That reminds me, I definitely need to track down some Mohawkite jewelry.
Sure, it’s technically toxic, but fashion always comes at a price.
I like my ingots pure. I can mix in the alloys myself!
Still, that doesn’t justify being rude to Nanni’s servant, or refusing to refund the copper.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/complaint-tablet-to-ea-nasir has the translation.
What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?
There’s even a community just for memes about it!
“I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.”
I’ve been re-reading WoA the past week and as soon as I saw this post I was like “holy shit Kwaan is on tumbler!”
WoA
What’s WoA?
Well of Ascension
Well of a sissy nation
Haha, I came in here to comment the same exact thing.
Unfortunately steel rusts
Bamboozled again by Ea-Nasir
The intent was to give people a sense of pride and accomplishment for making anything useful out of sub-standard copper.
Future archaeologists will wonder at how ‘literally’ became defined as its own antonym, and why there were no other adverbs for a decade.
It’s hyperbole
This, literally
Funnily enough, digital signals/data can actually be preserved perfectly and indefinitely because of its property perfect regeneration. Most efficient way to do it is to replicate it before it decays below regeneration. That one star review can outlast any stone tablet if it keeps on being copied.
(And source)
It started as a joke but nowadays more and more old memes and screenshots can only be found in conditions like the last panel.
Reminded me of this: https://youtu.be/QEzhxP-pdos
It’s a reference to good ol’ Ea-nāṣir
Most things last very long if stored properly. People tend to not do that, though. Probably why low-maintenance, high-permanence formats tend to keep the best.
We could store words on paper indefinitely if we keep copying it to fresh paper every so offen.
Obviously thats not practical or guaranteed for all of future history.
Sure. But I thought it was assumed that we were talking about writing that would survive without any additional interaction for extended periods.
If nobody is there to refresh the digital data, tablets, and papyrus, two of these will last millennia, one won’t even make two centuries.
you have not an eternity machine no
That would be a good thing for historians so they’ll be able to know for a fact that we had nothing interesting to say.
Full circle
Now that you mention it, are there laser etching, or engraving tools that may be available outside of industrial applications should one want to record their silly thoughts in a more permanent form?
They’re not cheap, but you can definitely get a very capable laser set up nowadays that you could etch a non corrosive material with. Some are pretty cool and even are able to etch curved surfaces rather easily on the user end.
Tbh it wouldn’t necessarily have to be lasers (not that I’ll say no to lasers), but it followed from the OP so thought I’d ask. Do they use lasers for some tombstones…? 🤨
Doubt laser could etch deep enough to survive wear and tear for thousands of years.
I mean, we have thousand years old paper and clay tablets.
I’d be less worried about the depth of the laser than the depth of the corrosion that the metal might face over time.
Glass or ceramic might work better.
laser etched ceramic is just modern clay tablets
Nice reference
Fr title game on point. OP is a scholar and a gentleman.
… what? bro put a one word title, am I missing something?
Fast forward 400 years and a new religion gets started when someone unearths the metal blog tablets.
I imagine that, given enough time, fundamentalist religious assholes will figure out a way to destroy everything, including themselves.
Huh? What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?
I’m going to 3d print the internet with PCV boards and promptly throw it away.
“Nothing is written in stone!”
“What about the Rosetta Stone?”
