The Digital Dark Age For thousands of years, we humans have kept records. We have engraved on walls and rocks, engraved on tablets and stones and written on leaves. Many of these documents have survived to the present day; as we have used them to read, learn about and understand our history and our ancestors. The invention of printing made writing documents much easier and faster. Information that changed the world was printed on paper and even some of this information has survived to this day. In the 20th century, we began keeping records and saving information in a different way: in technological, computerized and digital formats. This way of storing information included media such as pictures or films. From now on, several programs were made and the information was stored as electronic documents. This method made it easy to store, access and share information. Our ways have evolved to the present day, where the storage capacity can be described as infinite. From 2GB USBs to the 6TB UltraStar He6, the storage devices have not failed us in archiving our records. Right now we live in a time where most of our lives are characterized by these technological storage devices. What happens if this information, stored as it is, is no longer readable? How will future historians read records about our current civilization as we have read from past civilizations? What if a digital dark age descends upon us, just like the Middle Ages, but this time due to a lack of digital records? We have invented devices and ways to store information, but we have overlooked one vital point: we have not thought of practical ways to preserve this information, to keep it easily accessible, to prevent it from disappearing from the face of the Earth. Information saved by the computer... half the paper... a disk. This is a time when we rely primarily on digital forms of information. This information may not be that important, or it may be extremely critical and crucial. In both cases, the information we rely on must be saved and kept easily accessible, for the sake of being able to access it again and for the sake of future historians who study our civilizations. They will realize that technology has been a major factor in shaping our lives and therefore they will need digitally stored information to understand and learn about us. So we need to do our best to store our information in newer forms and try to rebuild the devices that read older information to make sure it doesn't disappear. Works Cited Kuny, Terry. A digital dark age? Challenges in preserving electronic information. September 4, 1997.