Yes, but. Records are records. Civilizations have ended and left records. I wonder if we will leave records. Those plastic pieces we carry around are probably indesructable, but the data they carry may decay over time. There are billions of PCs and many would survive even a massive asteroid impact, but what about the CDs? In a thousand years would our record be nothing but a collection of Doom3 and Dune2000 games?
"In a thousand years would our record be nothing but a collection of Doom3 and Dune2000 games?"
A CD can last 1000s of years, but imagine the difficulty of figuring out what it's for. And for that matter, imagine trying to convince some future "skeptic" that it is an artifact of an advanced, vanished civilization.
Starting a surviving PC -- one capable of booting off CD -- might be practical, depending on how and where it is preserved. Obviously, one would also have to leave a generator in the same cave, and instructions (pictures only) on how to crank it to provide power. Obviously it's too much to expect the Volt and the Amp specs to survive.
Our records could be quite remarkable. Hoover Dam, and other large dams, would still be around, unless they were in the asteroid impact zone. Large reliefs like Mount Rushmore would be around in some form. Plaques on construction projects would survive here and there. Cornerstones of buildings would be around.
Of course, depending on the length of time and the after-impact culture involved, it's possible that the writing would never again be readable...
I'm not worried about a thousand years into the future. Most electronic data won't be accessible in 50. CDs in perfect storage conditions may last 30 years, but will you be able to get a device to read them? NASA has tons of data from the viking and voyager spacecraft sitting on magtapes that can no longer be read because they've decayed so much.
In a modern society, if you want data to survive, you must have a system in place to constantly refresh the old data to new media. You also have to convert file formats as well. It's a major issue, and one that is not really being dealt with even with the resources of FedGov.
You mean those thin, round, shiny objects, with the hole in the center?
Some schools believe they were used as money, since they come in at least three distinct and uniform sizes, though this theory is losing ground
The theory that they were worn as jewelry was quickly discarded.
The most viable theory is that they were ritual objects. Because so many are found in various containers (so called "jewel cases") that vary both in elaborateness and number held (one/case being the most common, though sometimes as many as three); and because many have been found inserted into primitive 'electronic' devices, we feel they were a way of attempting to communicate with the 'gods', akin to our ancestors' use of prayer wheels.
There is still a major controversy over whether or not the larger, more primitive hole-less disks (some of which are embossed with the enigmatic inscription "Frisbee") are related; precursors; contemporaneous; or totally unrelated.