[Revolting cat!]

CDs lasting 100 years? Sez who? I've read reports of music CDs deteriorating after several years. And don't tell me "oh, those are the early CDs. the technology is much improved now", just show me a 100 year old CD that plays and I'll show you a 100 year old wax cylinder that still plays!

Arrogant fools in every age think everything is better than everything that preceeded it.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

How about we print out everything at least once, photograph it in black and white? That lasts a long, long time...

Of course, I'm one of those people with old computers stashed in the closet because of various treasures on them which will probably never be accessed again....

[js1138]

Arrogant fools in every age think everything is better than everything that preceeded it.

Lots of stuff will get lost, but that is nothing new. The thing that makes digital special is that files can be copied to new media without loss. Nothing guarantees that they will be.

And even if family images could be preserved forever, who will have the time to view them. In the past five years my family (four adults now) has accumulated about 50,000 images. All but maybe a thousand are either trash or redundant.

When my daughter got married I spent several months putting together a digital slide show. I went through 25 years of old photos, scanning the best, cropping them, and correcting the color of faded prints. I wound up with about 700 images worth preserving, all of which fit on one CD.

Will those survive a hundred years? They will if there are people interested in keeping them.