The Digital Dark Age May Doom Some Data

The issue of a looming digital dark age originates from the massive data spawned by our ever growing information economy. Last count, 369 exabytes worth of data, electronic records, tax files, email, music and photos for starters. The frame photograph will inevitably fade in yellow over time, but the digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers. It's not just like, oh, we're going to miss out on these photos or these family heirlooms. That kind of stuff is important.