Digital data will not last forever unless we decide it is important. To my mind this is a good thing. In 200 years I really don’t care if an anthropologist can look at my past bank statements. The other side of the digital data explosion is that most of the data in the world now is CRAP. I don’t want to keep every spam message I have ever received. The important data I will chose to preserve.
I don’t think this is particularly different from the written word. Some people saved everything on paper, but many kept only what was important. If something is important to me I will have it backed up and it will move forward in technology as I do.
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