There's a growing concern that our digital data -- something we thought was going to last forever on floppy disks, Zip Drives, CDs, DVDs, flash drives, etc. -- will not be preserved if the technology that stores them cannot be preserved. Good luck finding an Iomega Zip Drive these days.
So what's the solution?
There are a few forward-thinking projects underway right now to help transition data from decade to decade, century to century. But it's hard to imagine that we have books and scrolls that have been preserved for millennia, but we can't read a 5.25-inch floppy disk from 1989.
A false sense of security persists surrounding digitized documents: because an infinite number of identical copies can be made of any original, most of us believe that our electronic files have an indefinite shelf life and unlimited retrieval opportunities. In fact, preserving the world’s online content is an increasing concern, particularly as file formats (and the hardware and software used to run them) become scarce, inaccessible, or antiquated, technologies evolve, and data decays. Without constant maintenance and management, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades. Our modern records are far from permanent.
https://longnow.org/ideas/shining-a-light-on-the-digital-dark-age/
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