• Home
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Hosting
  • Newsletter
  • T-Shirt
  • Stickers
  • Tips
  • Contact

Laughing Squid

A daily dose of art, culture and technology.

The Rosetta Disk Online – 1,500 Languages In A Browser Window

by Aaron Muszalski on March 24, 2009

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • More
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype
  • Reddit
  • Print

Guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Thanks to the rather clever folks at The Long Now Foundation’s Rosetta Project, you can now explore the contents of their Rosetta Disk in your browser window.

Inspired by the historic Rosetta Stone, the Rosetta Disk is intended to be “a durable archive of human languages” as well as “an aesthetic object that suggests a journey of the imagination across culture and history”. Made of nickel alloy (with a 2,000 year life expectancy), the physical Disk is three inches across, and micro-etched with over 13,000 pages of language documentation, covering over 1,500 languages.

[On the front side of the disk] the text begins at eye-readable scale and spirals down to nano-scale. This tapered ring of languages is intended to maximize the number of people that will be able to read something immediately upon picking up the Disk, as well as implying the directions for using it—‘get a magnifier and there is more.’

 

The online version allows viewers to zoom into, and scroll through the entire contents of both sides of the disk, and easily read pages of information which, on the physical disk, are only .019 inches, or half a millimeter, across.

image by The Rosetta Project & photo by Lincoln Smith


Follow us on Facebook and Twitter


Related Posts



← Previous Post
Next Post →


Follow Laughing Squid on Facebook and Twitter

Managed WordPress Hosting

Host your WordPress site with Managed WordPress at Laughing Squid Hosting.

Trending on Laughing Squid

  • 70 Tiny Birds Play a Room Full of Electric Guitars
    70 Tiny Birds Play a Room Full of Electric Guitars
  • A Brilliant Cello Mashup of Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony' and Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'
    A Brilliant Cello Mashup of Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony' and Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'
  • A Website That Lets You Add Bernie Sanders Sitting at the Inauguration to Any Location on Google Maps
    A Website That Lets You Add Bernie Sanders Sitting at the Inauguration to Any Location on Google Maps
  • Bernie Sanders Reacts to His Inauguration Photo Becoming a Meme on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers'
    Bernie Sanders Reacts to His Inauguration Photo Becoming a Meme on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers'
  • A Wonderful Tribute to the Pioneering Bassist Tina Weymouth of 'Talking Heads' and 'Tom Tom Club'
    A Wonderful Tribute to the Pioneering Bassist Tina Weymouth of 'Talking Heads' and 'Tom Tom Club'

Powered by Laughing Squid Hosting and WordPress VIP
Newsletter | Affiliate Disclosure | Privacy Policy
© 1995-2021 Laughing Squid LLC, all rights reserved