These flaky objects go obsolete dismayingly fast, with new technologies rolling in on product cycles as short as two to five years. Our collective memory is already beginning to fade away, many of the participants believe. Future archeologists will find our pottery but not our E-mail. We do short-term memory, period. The information-storage medium of the past couple of millennia for words not writ in stone, anyway has of course been paper.
Paper does decay with time, and it is fragile.
One big fire at the library at Alexandria in 391 A.D. destroyed a calamitous piece of the ancient world s heritage. But to some people, paper is beginning to look good. Refreshing isn t easy, and most institutions have not yet realized that it may be necessary. Whatever media they used to save their digital information, they will not be able to read it without a machine a finicky antique, most likely. With paper, all you need is your eyes.