I guess you're not wrong, but we do see digital things disappear constantly and without warning. If no one backed up that data it's gone forever.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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And everyone everywhere just takes it for granted that someone has backed up things.
And no one realizes that things are lost until they're gone
Yeah, like I said I'm not knocking any of these activities, and they all have some reason behind them. On the "prepper" side, lots of people recognize the value of things like emergency plans and even having a go-bag packed. There's value in it, for sure.
I guess I'm not as concerned about some data being lost, just as I'm not as concerned about prepping for imminent nuclear war.
But once something is on the Internet it's there forever! /s
I disagree.
Most doomsday preppers won't really be prepared for a complete fall of society.
Most that I have seen ignore the need for cooperation snd focus on their own individual survival.
That is short term thinking.
Data hoarders are more like private libraries, they can for a long time distribute knowledge and media helping society as a whole.
A doomsday prepper like that, would focus on creating caches of standardized tools, I mean stuff like shovels, hammers, nails, screws, screwdrivers, files, plows, hoes, drills, saws, shoes, and more, so that they could organize a group of people to build a community.
Most preppers seem to just focus on their own survival in the short term, one of the dumbest things I have seen is the "doomsday vehicle" thing, that is just stupid. Get a simple, reliable car, put it in a garage, take it out once every other week for a good drive to keep it fresh, and leave it, that will do far better than any insane custom doomsday car.
There are preppers out there who aren't individualist hoarders and bunker-havers, but you won't see that on TV because it's harder to make fun of.
Fair point
That made me think about what it would actually take to start rebuilding after a zombie apocalypse or some other disaster like that.
First of all, you would need to restart various bits of infrastructure, like water and electricity. On top of that, you would also need to restart the factories that manufacture the spare parts for all the machiens. Those factories also require raw materials, like metals, so initially metal recycling might be the easiest way to do it. No need to start mining new metals until you’ve already used up all the broken cars and sky scrapers littering the landscape.
So, basically you need to get all sorts of heavy industry up and running again. Those data hoarders can help out with the necessary engineering literature, but having some tools is also required.
I am not too worried about heavy machines, they work at scale, but require a lot of infrastructure to keep running.
In an apocalypse, manpower will probably be the number one resource of work available, so basic tools is needed, after we have a source of food, security and shelter, we can start looking at researching/refining better tools, once basic needs are met.
Initially, you just need to survive. I can imagine that next you’ll start building small communities and fulfilling their needs.
If you can’t get water purification running, the small village won’t grow to a town. If you can’t make your own tools and shelters, it’s going to stay in the tribal stage.
Water purification is a big problem, however water does not need to be treated to fulfill the standards for normal drinking water here, boiling collected rain water should be plenty good enough at the start.
Further up in the mountain we have soo many freshwater springs that most hikers don't pack water as it is just dead weight.
Down here by the coast, fresh water springs does exist, but are way fewer.
As a data hoarder, jokes on you, doomsday is already here.
Touche
Nah, our thing is already in progress. We're not just hoarding shit for a hypothetical future scenario.
You can download a subset of Wikipedia for offline use using Kiwix!
Finally, I can ditch Encarta '97.
Ah, but does Kiwix have that ridiculous labrynth game?
Why can't I prep all the things? I have bullets, beans and bytes, oh my.
Problem is that doomsday keeps happening, repeatedly, but at a tiny scale. Games, movies, shows, albums, all keep disappearing...
Not just digital, necessarily. Sometimes it's both.
We're already at least a couple years past doomsday.