When history looks back on the data and
paraphernalia left behind, the historians will observe that I lived
through three out of six of the most significant changes in data
recording and retrieval.
The three I missed out on were the printing press with movable type, the camera (and subsequent movie version) and sound recording. What I lived through were carbon copies, xerography and the Internet.
When I was in the Army, everything I typed had to be done on seven carbon copies. With the brief advent of the electric typewriter that number went to 12. I don't mean to slight the Dictaphone, the mimeograph or ditto machines.
What an astounding contribution has been made to history during my lifetime and in the prior half century in the recording of data, both trivial and significant.
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