its so fucked up that optical discs straight up rot though right? something about digital media just feels like it shouldnt be susceptible like that to the forces that govern the physical world and yet discs rot as if theyre an organic thing

This also happens with digital data due to the degradation of the physical storage medias! This book (best before by james newman) talks a lot about it in the context of videogames and the the implications it has for the ongoing efforts to archive them!