archiving as opposed to backing up

[Innfogra at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/04 1:05:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time, teoz at neo.rr.com 
writes:
Over 2000 years ago, the ancient Romans & Greeks *knew* the Earth was
round
> and orbited the sun. However, it seems all references to that knowledge
was
> unavailable by the 1st millennium, when people once again thought the
world
Actually it was ethe Egyptians who calculated the diameter of the world and 
knew it was round. And the Library in Alexandra had over 400,000 books covering 
the knowledge and technology of the time. 600 to 300 BC was a real high point 
in civilization with a real understanding of the world and technology. The 
Greeks adopted much of the Egyption technology. The Mediterainian area even had 
geared differential chronometers for navigation.

It was the Romans who burned the library and did not care about loseing the 
technology. Their technology was war and the were very successful at it. The 
world before the Romans was much more stable and understood. It was Western 
Civilization (based on the Romans) that really brought Civilization down from its 
high point. And is still doing it.

Paxton
Astoria, Oregon

PS:  I think it is the failure of the electrical systems due to virus attacks 
that will bring our civilization down from it's high point. With so much 
information in electronic format it will be similar to the burning of the library 
in Alexandra with much loss of technology.