h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I have nothing to say on the subject at the mo other than congrats to Mustapha for this fine idea.

I have loose connections to history - I work in a museum (and spent three years of my life studying art history) but I actually know shockingly little of the general big stuff in history (and am ashamed to admit it). Perhaps if I hang around here long enough I might learn a thing or two

I second the sentiment, although it's awfully big brief!

The history of many of the things we do everyday is almost entirely unrecognised - history itself is a comparitively young concept. With a little bit of effort (and talking to the right people) this may be the forum which creates the world's first "interactive" history: an ongoing "history of h2g2", for example...

Pedantry for the sake of it...

Firstly, this scheme already includes stuff not technically history, more prehistory - not a bad thing, but just thought I'd say.

Secondly, in more direct relation to Hypoman's comments, 'interactive' history is surely all around us. Not only are we all involved in whatever degree in shaping our own and other's histories, but we all create 'history' through our own interpretation and reading of past events. Postmodernism (ok ok I won't go on too much here) has encouraged individual interpretations of historical and archaeological evidence (not that it wasn't happening before this), so I guess that the act of writing and publishing history texts to be interpreted is an interactive act (with the help of the audience).

H2G2 provides a great place not only for the recording of our own lives but for our interpretations of today and the past, but I don't think it is unique, or the first place for such activity.

And can we guarantee the preservation of such information as historical evidence for future interpretation?

"Pedantry", Frizzy...?

"Interactive" history COULD be all around us - if only enough people took care to be a little "pedantic"... So far, though, not many have. The "history of insant coffee making", for a fairly flippant example, hasn't been tried yet, as far as I know.

Preservation is not as important as awareness, just to confuse things a little more...

Thanks for all the support, much appreciated.

Firstly, re: pre/history. I think there is going to be a bit of crossover (or overflow, if you will) into areas that aren't strictly "historical". For example, there is going to be a bit of archaeo, palaeo and anthropo.

If any field of science or research helps shed new light on our past, or puts a new perspective on it, then all the better.

History is, as you say, a matter of perspective, and as such it is fluid and constantly changing, just like H2G2. So H2G2's Historical Society should be in keeping with that nature. (As much as that might impinge on my sanity)

BTW Hypoman, while I think there is limited scope for a History of Instant Coffee Making (but don't let that stop you, if you do!) I think an entry on the History of Coffee has great potential! Eg where it was first grown, its introduction to Europe, how it came into vogue. A look at the social morays of coffee could be interesting. Why some nationalities drink so much of it, why some religious groups prohibit it's consumption.

So you see rather than just being an encyclopaedia, there's room for a bit of lateral thinking.

Again, Brilliant idea this! As I am too computer illiterate to do this myself, you might like to add this one on "King Arthur found at Tintagel?": A201312.

More power to all involved in this historical project.
Happy New Year all
Bran.

Done and done!

In response to "Preservation is not as important as awareness" (sorry, couldn't be bothered to click on the right reply button) - you may say so now, but much of our interpretation of pre/history comes from re-interpretation of surviving material/cultural evidence.

And forums such as this are as much material evidence as letters to newspapers, minutes of meetings etc. From a museum point of view, the preservation of such items of material evidence allows independent study and the wider questioning of established histories. So surely, debate and articles 'published' on the internet (and h2g2 in particular) should perhaps be considered to be cultural production worth preserving. Perhaps the powers that be are planning methods to safely archive all this digital info created by h2g2 reseachers (note our title here). If not, I think they should be (sort of ties on with the principle of the Hitchhikers Guide?)

This is where the problem with the distinction between "preservation" and "awareness" becomes apparent. The PTB at h2g2 are already aware of the major problems that "preservation" could cause them - we're already running out (or at least conscious of) server space now.

"Preservation" has not always worked in the past - witness the notrious unreliability of traditional texts like the Bible, for example. The "awareness" of what was going on at the time - as in the histories of Thucydides, for example - is often all we have to go on about some things, and influences greatly the ways in which we interpret "preserved" information. The information we create here is unusual in that it represents both "preserved" and "interpreted" (or "recorded awareness" for want of a better term) history.

The proposed strategy for dealing with this problem relies more on the "awareness" angle - distilling the best from as many fora as are relevant to a topic, and turning them into articles. The catch is that there is simply so much information out there that what is best is often extremely difficult to determine.

"History" in the information age is as much an economic concern as a philosophical one: only with some consideration for both these elements can you hope to construct a good history, and even then it will never (as history throughout the ages) be comprehensive...

Just as important as "awareness " is, and first-hand accounts are, we should always be suspicious of them.

It's a cliche I know, but history is often written by the conqueror, or at least from the point of view of the protagonist.

Eg the accounts of the Celts by Pausanias and Caesar, of pagan Vikings by Christian Bishops, even of the Inquisition by Protestant writers. *

The map is not the territory, and neither the artifact nor the chronicler are the history. Rather it is the sum of their combined stories.

* Not to say I'm a Catholic apologist or condoning what the Inquisition did.

Hi just thought I'd pop in and say what a good idea this is. I did A level history and if i'd had access to information like this then I would have done alot better. When I get the time I might write a few articles for you to use. I did my project on ghengis khan and the mongols so I could write quite a bit about that period in time.