From natural hazards to outer space and to Plan9

An information system for scholarly work on natural hazards calls for the design of a computer system for transmission of information over very long periods, and for traceability. An abstract analysis shows that these requirements are dual to the fundamental question of assisting the cognitive activity of a user using external memories, which reaches a very general scope. The solutions should be implemented at the operating system level, mainly the file system, and Plan9's file systems and other properties make it the soundest base for our work. We present our road-map for development.