> whereas this interactive web page will surely disappear within a decade or two
The point you're raising is at the moment important, but ultimately irrelevant.
The scientific paper in digital format when it was first produced, did not have all the advantages of physical paper. Physical paper was easier to archive (digital storage would corrupt easily), easier to move around (you needed a computer to view a digital paper, and most people didn't have one; networks were mostly non-existent), and easier to annotate.
These were all important things to consider at the time, but the technology eventually caught up, and surpassed printed paper in most of not all aspects.
Keeping dynamic content consumable through the years, would be costlier than keeping static content consumable. But the price isn't that high. Web standards are designed with backward compatibility in mind, and the software you use to view web content (browsers) is mostly open source. I'd imagine it'd be much easier to view web content produced today in the 2030s, than it is for us to play NES games produced in the 80s.
You are correct but is not enough for the technology to improve, there needs to be some thought into making things forwards compatible too. Human readable formats stand the best chance of being understood even if there is an interruption in the advancement of civilisation. Paper obviously wins here. The elephant in the room is of course the media on which the information is stored. Paper is probably the most robust storage technology we have right now.
Seems like many in this thread are thinking about conservation. Thats positive.
Not all paper (papyrus, wood or stone) based documents remains till this day. Effort was made to conserve it because, through different times, enough people thought that knownledge was worth being remembered.
If a interactive paper is meaningful to enough people, it will be preserved.
You could say the same of oral traditions, which were also preserved: but that doesn't mean that oral traditions are just as good (in terms of information transfer) as written ones. Keeping up a digital paper would be much like an oral tradition, with each new generation having to re-implement it for current devices.
I have books that were printed in the '70s and '80s that are yellowed and cracking--literally disintegrating where they sit, on a bookshelf in a climate controlled room. You certainly can produce and print on paper that lasts much longer, but this is also true of digital mediums.
The point you're raising is at the moment important, but ultimately irrelevant.
The scientific paper in digital format when it was first produced, did not have all the advantages of physical paper. Physical paper was easier to archive (digital storage would corrupt easily), easier to move around (you needed a computer to view a digital paper, and most people didn't have one; networks were mostly non-existent), and easier to annotate.
These were all important things to consider at the time, but the technology eventually caught up, and surpassed printed paper in most of not all aspects.
Keeping dynamic content consumable through the years, would be costlier than keeping static content consumable. But the price isn't that high. Web standards are designed with backward compatibility in mind, and the software you use to view web content (browsers) is mostly open source. I'd imagine it'd be much easier to view web content produced today in the 2030s, than it is for us to play NES games produced in the 80s.