Virtual Still Life

(Thank you to who ever nominated this for a "Best of Holidailies". I appreciate it.)

On the radio the other day there was an article on some kind of art work that had been destroyed, and my first thought was, “At least they have a photo catalogue of it, don’t they? It’s not like things that were lost 100 years ago, is it?” I was a bit surprised at my own reaction, which led me to the question, “Are historical/art objects now less precious because we have the technology to preserve them in another form?”

Does a photograph of the Mona Lisa have the same value as the painting? If so, how far does this rule apply? What about sculpture? Is the line then drawn at 3-dimensional? Is the actual entire piece of art integrated as a whole the most thorough experience, including the knowledge that it was pained by whom ever X numbers of years ago, and that this is the original texture and framework, and this is how it smelled? Would we feel the loss of the original less keenly if we had a perfect replica? What if we didn’t know that it was a replica? Does it retain its value as artwork when it is created by a lesser hand?

Does the replica of a dinosaur skeleton have the same meaning as a 150 million year old bone because it looks the same? What about a captive endangered species? Genetically it’s a dodo, but is it really a dodo if it's taken out of its original habitat and lies in a cage eating what it’s provided and has no other dodos to frolic with? In that case, is a dodo-shaped robot just as good? What about a video of a dodo? What about a photo? A drawing? Where do we draw the line on preservation, or is it a sliding scale?

What is our future going to look like in this preservation scenario? I’ve backed up my computer files, writing, photos, and music, now how do I store this information? Are we going to end up with towers upon towers of backups of DVDs of all the experiences that we've lost? Are the catalogues of our lives going to be retained on an external hard drive? What value does that have as “your life”? Is it just something you want to keep for your lifespan or is it an entity that lives on after your end in support of your practical goals? Or are we just generally retaining history because we can? And can that truly be considered "living on" if all of what you produced is altered by the image you want to present to the rest of the world? Is what I choose to post from the selection of my thoughts thrown out here onto the Internet really a reflection of who I am? Or is it some distorted copy of myself? If that is all that is left of me after my life, is that who I retroactively become? (Are we getting into Orwellian territory here?)

Does video replace life experience? What happens when everyone is plugged in to the same video lifelines? Are we all then living the same life? Will nature, art, music be divided into castes, based on scarcity, limits of what you are allowed to experience based on what level of authenticity you can pay for? Will only the rich get to experience life first hand, and the rest of us will just drink down a cheap photocopy, fuzzy at the edges? Is a recording the same as a concert? A movie the same as a play? When did the lines get so blurry between living and observing? Are we already starting to live a virtual life in a virtual world? Is that still life?