[Cryptography] Magnetic media destruction question

[Peter Gutmann]

Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> writes:

>Vernon Vinge predicted this in his (highly recommended) 2006 novel Rainbow’s
>End.  One element of the story involves a decision to save space and money by
>digitizing the paper books, magazines, and other records in libraries.  The
>method is destructive to the originals:  Books are tossed into the maw of a
>machine the finely shreds them, then sends the shreds flying down a kind of
>wind tunnel, whose sides are covered in lamps and cameras.  Software then
>reconstructs the books in digital form.

And then there's the Ia(i)n Banks twist on this, where group A stages a
hostile takeover of the planet where group B lives.  One of the terms of the
surrender is that group A promises that not a letter of group B's cultural
records will be harmed.

And they don't, they just arrange them into alphabetical order.

Peter.