ergophobe - 9:45 pm on Jul 4, 2007 (gmt 0)

The perspective of their argument is twisted; We have access today to only a tiny amount of recorded information from the past. For example, it has been said that the sacking of the library at Alexandria set civilization back 1000 years. Old books mildew and rot

Good point Jim. I got sidetracked, but I meant to mention that. The big advantage of digital storage is that it can be replicated and storage can be distributed.

Case in point. I work with 500 year-old documents. Or used to. As of last year, the collection I work on the most frequently was photographed and made available on DVD. This means that if the archive is destroyed tomorrow in a firestorm, those unique volumes are now no longer truly unique.