The Digital Human

Disk


Listen Later

They were ubiquitous - taped onto magazines covers, bursting out of overstuffed office cabinet drawers, used to hold everything from secret family recipes, to photo albums, to legal documents, operating systems; anything you could cram on 1.4mb of storage was contained on floppy disks.

After a 40 year career as the go to storage method of, even gateway to, the digital world, they were declared effectively obsolete. But are they?

Aleks discovers some of the last people to be trading in, and experimenting with, floppy disks. She finds out which industries still depend on them, how artists are repurposing them, and how they birthed a new niche genre of music - despite never having been a means for storing or creating music in their heyday.

Why is it only when a technology falls into obscurity that we test its boundaries, and how can floppy disks guide us in our relationship with technology in a future world of unbridled, unlimited, data.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Digital HumanBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5

4.5

26 ratings


More shows like The Digital Human

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,589 Listeners

From Our Own Correspondent by BBC Radio 4

From Our Own Correspondent

379 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,056 Listeners

In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,464 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,805 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,748 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,044 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

2,085 Listeners

F1: Chequered Flag by BBC Radio 5 Live

F1: Chequered Flag

772 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,187 Listeners

The Bomb by BBC World Service

The Bomb

1,027 Listeners