Don't fear the future, don't forget the past

An alarming thought just occurred to me after reading that 35-90% of the web is backed up. I finally realized how different the Internet and how we access data are from the past. It was no problem going to the library or archives to find old books and periodicals chronicling our history, the good, bad and incorrect. Science is proven wrong all the time as it seeks to answer its questions it's a natural process and I welcome these corrections but I would hate to forget that we were once wrong. The reminders of our fallibility make us stronger and should drive us forward to greater innovation with greater insights.

But now for the common person these histories will less and less available. Our growing concerns about the recording of our live is slowly erasing our pasts. Before you could save a letter from a friend, keep it and one day it would tell a story about you. Now we live in a time where we record and report at 140 characters and the best we can do to save those minute messages is to favorite them.

Many of the west have concerns about what they will leave for their children or the next generation. But our living legacies out lives and our stories will not be left to them. If we as a species are to continue we cannot forget our past but at this rate we may forget before it's too late.