The Re-Animation of the Dead
A digital artifact is not just code; it is an interaction. A 1995 CD-ROM encyclopedia cannot be "read" like a book; it must be run. Emulation recreates the specific conditions of its life (the Windows 95 OS, the slow spin of the CD drive, the 640x480 resolution) to create a "living bubble" in the modern world.
Emulation vs. Migration
These are the two competing philosophies of the Archives:
The Case for Emulation (The Purist)
"Keep the artifact exactly as it is." If you convert a Word 97 document to PDF, you lose the macros, the "Clippy" assistant, and the specific font rendering. Emulation preserves the experience but requires immense technical debt (maintaining the emulators themselves).
The Case for Migration (The Pragmatist)
"Make the content accessible." Converting that Word 97 document to a modern text format makes it searchable and readable on an iPhone. Migration saves the content but often kills the soul (the layout, the interaction).
Field Notes
The "Petribyte" Solution: Emulation is the only way to re-animate a Petribyte (a fossilized artifact). By wrapping the fossil in a software layer (like DOSBox or Ruffle), we trick the dead code into believing it is still 1998.
The Browser as Virtual Machine: The modern web browser has become the universal emulator. With tools like Emularity (Internet Archive), we can run an entire Macintosh Plus inside a Chrome tab. This democratizes archaeology—you no longer need a physical museum to touch the past.