Note that the cost per byte started going down with the printing press and then plunged with the computer revolution. As the cost goes down, increasingly trivial data gets preserved.
If we're going to think about this in evolutionary terms, we should consider what causes people to preserve data versus throwing it away. As the cost goes down, it might just be inertia; it's not worth deciding what to keep. Low energy cost is adaptive.
If we're going to think about this in evolutionary terms, we should consider what causes people to preserve data versus throwing it away. As the cost goes down, it might just be inertia; it's not worth deciding what to keep. Low energy cost is adaptive.