The historic value of an old survey map of Cape Charles, Virginia is touted in a feature in Eastern Shore News. The following quote from a surveyor reminisces about the old days.
“It’s all done by computer now. A computer doesn’t have a heart anymore, just a mainframe and an electronic brain. It doesn’t make pretty pictures that people do.”
But isn’t a computer just a tool to better automate, communicate and preserve our surveys? The feature talks about a map that’s been up on the wall of the local hardware store, and that’s not recorded at the courthouse. It romanticizes this old survey as a piece of art and record of the past. I understand the longing for days gone by, but surely there’s more value to capturing and sharing this information digitally.
