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A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE: Google boss warns of 'forgotten century' with email and photos at risk - Digital material including key historical documents could be lost forever because programs to view them will become defunct, says Vint Cerf

13 February 2015

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"Piles of digitised material – from blogs, tweets, pictures and videos, to official documents such as court rulings and emails – may be lost forever because the programs needed to view them will become defunct, Google’s vice-president has warned....

The warning highlights an irony at the heart of modern technology, where music, photos, letters and other documents are digitised in the hope of ensuring their long-term survival. But while researchers are making progress in storing digital files for centuries, the programs and hardware needed to make sense of the files are continually falling out of use."

See the article: Google boss warns of 'forgotten century' with email and photos at risk - Digital material including key historical documents could be lost forever because programs to view them will become defunct, says Vint Cerf (Guardian, link)

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