only evidence of our existence. In the past, the custodians of cultural records had to continually balance the preservation of manuscripts, books, recordings, film and video against their availability for public access. Digital content reverses this balance. In spite of Marshall McLuhan's book-bound insights ('the medium is the massage') the process of digitisation now allows us to separate content from the medium which carries it. This loosening of the bonds imposed by the carrier medium, allows data in almost any form (text, sound, image) to be reused and recombined with a facility which we have yet to learn how to exploit. The rush to digital technology has been so sudden that we have barely had time to work out how we can practically apply the process to records of the past, let alone consider the questions necessary to ensure the durability of the present. Nor have we had time to quietly reflect on the stability and durability of the means of mediation - computers and software. Some of the more thoughtful archivists are sounding alarms. There is a very real possibility that nothing created, stored and disseminated electronically will survive in the long term. The problem does need to be stated this dramatically. I have an unfailing sinking feeling whenever anybody links the concepts of digitisation and preservation. I have a profound and unchanging belief that these two concepts do not belong in any sense in the same world. After my father's death in 1990, I extracted from his belongings