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Preservationist's Myopia

/prɛ • zər • ˈveɪ • ʃən • ɪsts • maɪ • ˈoʊ • pi • ə/ From 'preservation' + 'myopia' (nearsightedness/lack of foresight).
Definition The well-intentioned but flawed practice of prioritizing the technical integrity of a file (the "bit-level" data) over its cultural context and meaning. It is "saving the fly but ignoring the amber."

The Umbrabyte Fallacy

The Preservationist rushes to save the "gold coins" (the .html and .gif files) from a ruin like GeoCities but fails to catalog the "container" (the Umbrabyte of the Homestead itself).

By focusing on the file (Vivibyte), they often "clean away" the evidence of brokenness—the dead scripts, the severed links—which are actually the most profound historical data. These broken elements prove the "Faustian bargain" of rented land.

The Petribyte Blindness

Because the Preservationist is focused on "readable data," they often classify "Petribytes" (obsolete formats like .swf or .rm) as "corrupted" or "errors." To the Archaeobytologist, these are not errors; they are "Rosetta Stones"—fossils that require a key (emulator) to unlock.

Stratigraphy (Related Concepts)
The Archaeologist's Blind Spot Umbrabyte Petribyte Digital Forensics