While we do have lots of information on our history, we humans also tend to be quite careless with our possessions. How else could we explain the loss of so many cultural aspects and scientific data? There are quite a few awesome things we lost forever, and we are currently losing more and more without even being aware of the fact. The following article might depress some of you, but we should understand the importance of our civilization and do our best to preserve it.
1. Important Skills
First of all, there is something the new age has brought that makes us lose something without even acknowledging it: manual and technical skills. The advancement of technology has led to the automatization of many services and in time we will forget completely how to manually complete some processes. The best examples are the new self-driving cars, as well as the auto-pilot mode from planes. In case these machines somehow fail to function automatically, we need to know how to use them manually.
2. Countless Species
Unfortunately, among the awesome things we lost forever are about 99% of Earth’s species. Apart from the extraordinary dinosaurs that were killed by natural disasters, there are a lot of species that died as a result of the activity of humans on Earth, as well as their carelessness. Scientists have reported that we are going through a mass extinction at the moment. While it is a slow process, we can be sure we are going to lose more beloved species, either by our hands or by natural disasters.
3. Food Types
This might come as a surprise, but almost none of the food we eat today is the same as the one our ancestors ate in the past. While mass production is intended to feed as may people as possible, it also influenced the diversity of food. For instance, the apples you can buy now from the supermarket have little in common with the apples your grandma bought at the local grocery when she was young. Reports have shown that 86% of apple varieties in the United States have disappeared over the last one hundred years.
4. Gaming History
Games historians are increasingly concerned about the fact that some video games cannot really be documented. Take for instance Internet browser games such as Farmville or the popular MMOs or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or EVE Online. These types of games receive numerous updates per year and thus are constantly in a process of change. As a result, many details of such games are lost forever and people from the future will have a hard time studying the video games of the past.
5. Language Families
Language families are among the important awesome things we lost forever. During the course of our history it seems we have forgotten about one hundred language families, and thus even more languages. And it seems we are about to lose even more, as the process is accelerating. For example, only last century 28 language families have disappeared out of the total of one hundred. Today, one language dies out every three months, and by the year 2100 half of the 6,500 languages of the world will be gone.
6. Numerous Bitcoins
The Money Project stated that the currency that performed best in 2015 was Bitcoin. This happened because bitcoins do not have regulations, as compared to banks. If you happen to die and still have bitcoins, they can no longer be used by anyone else, and thus become zombie coins. According to John Ratcliff, NVIDIA engineer, the value of those useless coins is estimated at $1 billion. $1 billion money that were lost forever.
7. Television History of Britain
The British have immensely contributed to global culture. Unfortunately, they are also responsible for some awesome things we lost forever. For instance, at the beginning of television, the BBC produced the popular Doctor Who series, as well as Monty Python. Because the company wanted to save money, they wiped old tapes instead of preserving them. As a result, Bob Dylan’s first televised performance and his first acting role, along with performances of the Beatles and several works of Ridley Scott have been lost forever.
8. Citations of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court citations are extremely important for the context of different cases. If you take a look at the 555 materials that are cited on the Internet by the Supreme Court, you will find out with surprise that about half of the links are broken. This makes it impossible to understand the verdicts of older cases.
9. Scientific Data
Current Biology published a study in 2013 that showed that almost all data that was collected by scientists over the last twenty years is not accessible. For instance, about 90% of raw data from 516 papers that were published from 1991 to 2011 has disappeared. The fault belongs once more to the Internet and the links that often break. As a result, the sources of various materials lead nowhere.
10. Unique Audio Recordings
Lastly, a couple of invaluable awesome things we lost forever refer to some audio recordings. As was the case with the BBC, at the beginning of recordings history, musicians would often destroy records they believed had no value. Thus, the first 23 years of music in America have completely vanished. Furthermore, extraordinary pieces by George Gershwin, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra have vanished, along with the recording that was made when the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb.
