

Digital Dark Age Could Destroy Our Cultural Record - erickhill
http://io9.com/5070084/digital-dark-age-could-destroy-our-cultural-record

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noonespecial
FTA:

 _Contrary to popular belief, electronic data has proven to be much more
ephemeral than books, journals or pieces of plastic art. After all, when was
the last time you opened a WordPerfect file or tried to read an 8-inch floppy
disk?_

Here comes the difference: I still have all of the data that was important
from my first commodore 64. I literally have papers I wrote when I was a 5th
grader. I can't read the c64 disks now of course but I copied them. From tape
to 5 1/4, from low density to high, from c64 to amiga from high desnsity to
3.5, from amiga to pc, from 3.5 to zip, from zip to cd, and now to dvd. My
parents lost nearly all of their records and photos in a fire in the mid 80s.

There is no "digital dark ages" because _you can copy it_. Easily. With no
degradation. Yes, NASA lost some data from the viking landing. They learned
the same hard lesson as the rest of us. Have backups.

Digital media has its faults but then so do Libraries at Alexandria. Digital's
faults are just easier to work around.

