History in the Making: On Computer Preservation

(A presentation at Reversim Summit 2025)

Our young little industry is, at 70 years and an estimated 27 million engineers, no longer young or little. The breakneck pace of hardware and software evolution is unprecedented in human history, and the impact of computing on humanity - transforming industries, communication and social structures, even nationalities - will only be fully understood by historians in the distant future. But what will these historians learn from, if the fruits of our collective labor are discarded and forgotten, old computers rusting in landfills, bits and bites gone to the ether?

Thus was born the computer preservation movement. A loose collection of hobbyists, collectors, traders and - more recently - legitimate non-profits and foundations - has set out to preserve and categorize this rich and fascinating history. Being a hobbyist vintage computer collector, this has been a passion as well as mission of mine for some 30 years. Join me as we explore this wonderful mix of history, technical challenge and pure computer geekdom!

Transcript

1. History in the Making: On Computer Preservation Tomer Gabel @ Reversim Summit 2025 Tomer Gabel
2. Hi! I’m Tomer … and I’m a huge nerd.
3. … a specific type of nerd
4. I collect old computers
5. Let me tell you why.
6. Why do we call them software “bugs”?
7. Why do we call them software “bugs”?
8. Why do we call them software “bugs”?
9. Who cares?
10. The value of history
11. The value of history
12. History never looks like history when you are living through it. - John W. Gardner
13. So now what?
14. Preservation The Great Library of Alexandria
15. Preservation The Not-Longer-Great Library of Alexandria
16. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. - The Internet Archive
17. In the Interest of Future Historians 1. What artifacts will future historians look for? 2. What context will help to understand them? 3. What can we do to preserve them?
18. Bits and bytes • Code • Configuration • Binaries Hardware Documentation
19. Acquisition Corporate Archives Ex- employees Nerds and collectors
20. Archival Scanning operation at the Internet Archive KryoFlux
21. Restoration
22. History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul. - Lord Acton
23. Resources Israel 1. The Israeli Personal Computer Museum https://www.ipcm.org.il/ 2. Computer’s Collector Forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/64329550289 8686 3. Retro Computers, The Israeli Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/retrocompute rsisrael/ YouTube 1. Usagi Electric https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric 2. Adrian’s Digital Basement https://www.youtube.com/@adriansdigitalbasem ent 3. Tech Tangents https://www.youtube.com/@TechTangents
24. tomer@substrate.co.il @substrate_eng https://github.com/holograph Thank you for listening Questions? Substrate