Digital Information Lifespan

[Pacman000]

Thought this was kinda important.

[AlbertMond]

Absolutely agree. Among the reasons why the decline in public libraries is so concerning.

(Add to that the decline of paper books in general - stuff on Kindle, for instance, can be censored live after its release)

[Trevor]

This is exactly why film and non-film archives are so vitally important to a nation's memory: we have film in our archive which date back to 1898.

[ER]

As I've pointed out, it's possible to read 4,000-year-old Sumerian cuneiform tablets, but I can no longer access the CD that came with my high school yearbook. I can play old vinyl records my aunt bought when she was a teenager, but not all my mp3s from a decade ago still work. I bought a daguerreotype at an auction years back, and there it is, an old image, yet digital photos from the turn of the century corrupt with alarming regularity. People should think and prepare, or we're going to lose an entire era.  Give me print any day (I say on a digital forum).

[RCMerchant]

Which is why-before man-we can find no written history of the highly advanced civilizations that once ruled the earth.

[ER]

Which is why-before man-we can find no written history of the highly advanced civilizations that once ruled the earth.

Hey, good one, RC!

[RCMerchant]

No-it's true. Really.   Our existence will be nill. In 4000 years from now we'll be NOTHING.. Not even our buildings. Maybe Mount Rushmore.
Ancient folks were smart! The made stuff out of stone! BIG s**t out of stone!