In the long run, everything is ephemeral.
A digital archive could potentially last longer than a book or a vinyl, as long as the archivist takes care to maintain the integrity of the data.. Except in a sense that isn’t true at all.
In the distant future the archived material* is actually a copy of a copy ad nauseam, but perhaps a more perfect preservation of material than the Mona Lisa today.
But in this case it seems a lot more clear that it doesn't matter if it is the original or merely something that resembles the original. I don't care about the actual bytes on a hard drive, the grooves on a vinyl or whatever else the medium may be. This is all just a manifestation of something which is beyond the material realm. I care about the song, not the specific way the song is represented in the world of matter.
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In the long run, everything is ephemeral. A digital archive could potentially last longer than a book or a vinyl, as long as the archivist takes care to maintain the integrity of the data.. Except in a sense that isn’t true at all. In the distant future the archived material* is actually a copy of a copy ad nauseam, but perhaps a more perfect preservation of material than the Mona Lisa today.
*”material” being the relevant information.
Kind of like the 'ship of theseus' thought experiment.
But in this case it seems a lot more clear that it doesn't matter if it is the original or merely something that resembles the original. I don't care about the actual bytes on a hard drive, the grooves on a vinyl or whatever else the medium may be. This is all just a manifestation of something which is beyond the material realm. I care about the song, not the specific way the song is represented in the world of matter.